The Queen of Hearts
by mom-mi-oh
Summary: *SEQUEL POSTED - SEE UPDATE!* Yugi begins seeing a strange apparition around duellists at matches - What does this have to do with the Heart of the Cards?
1. Part I The Return

_I wrote this story for my daughter, so the content is probably okay for an 'G' rating; I rated it 'PG', however, for the occasional use of the word 'damn', which occurs more frequently in Part II than Part I..._

The Queen of Hearts: Part I 

The Return 

Yugi Moto stepped out, squinting, into the blazing sunlight of a brilliant fall day, listening to the animated chatter of his classmates around him. Finally, school was out for the weekend—a _ long_ weekend. He had been having a hard time concentrating today. He was too preoccupied. How could he sit there and do math and history when he was going to meet his friends, Tristan, Joey and Téa, at the park after school for a game of Duel Monsters? Joey had said he wanted to try out some new cards… 

Yugi's steps lengthened as he hurried down the familiar sidewalks to the park. He wanted to see those cards as much as Joey wanted to use them. Duel Monsters was the most exciting game, to him. And it was when he played Duel Monsters that something special inside Yugi became apparent. He had been playing the game for a long time, now, and everyone knew that—though Yugi was small and quiet—when he played Duel Monsters, he became ruthless, driven and powerful. And when this special part of him came out, Yugi never lost the game. It was as if the other player became so much smaller than this other Yugi that he could see right through him—and outmaneuver him. This duality had become something that had marked him among those who knew him. They all knew that Yugi was an unusual boy. 

Just to look at him, he didn't look so unusual. Small and quiet, his long red-blond hair stuck out at odd angles from his head in its own sort of style, no matter what he did to it. He had given up trying to do anything with it long ago. He wore jeans that were a bit too long, and a jean jacket that was a bit too big, and around his neck swung a long chain from which dangled a pyramid-shaped object—Yugi's Millennium Puzzle. 

It was this puzzle that made Yugi so unusual. It had once been an artifact—an Egyptian puzzle that his Grandpa had given him to solve. The puzzle was magic. When he had solved the puzzle, its magic had become a part of him, and he was able to play Duel Monsters with this strange other presence guiding him. 

Why was this game so important? It was only a game, after all… 

Or was it? 

This other presence inside Yugi made it obvious to anyone who was Yugi's friend that the game was much more. Already, Yugi and his friends had been in several adventures and dangerous spots where the magic of the game had shown them darker forces at work. Shadows and ghosts had shown their ugly faces, and they themselves had at times found themselves in a strange, altered world—the Shadow Realm—where the game was far more real, and far more dangerous, with far higher stakes. 

It was in these strange places that Yugi's magic would help the most, since it seemed to be the most familiar there. And because of this, Yugi had kept all of his friends safe—and had earned their trust and respect. 

"Yugi! Over here!" 

Téa's voice stopped Yugi in his tracks, and he turned, smiling, to his closest friend. Téa Gardiner was a tall, slender girl, who loved dancing more than Duel Monsters. She wasn't a bad player, though, and had in the past beaten both Joey and Tristan with her own deck. She waved Yugi over, her short brown hair swinging around her moon-shaped face. 

"What took you so long?" she asked Yugi as he drew nearer. "You missed all the action." 

"What action?" Yugi asked, curiosity piqued. After all they had been through together, when either Tristan, Joey or even Téa spoke of action, it was usually worth hearing. 

"Joey got himself in over his head again, I think," Téa sighed, with a sidelong smile at Yugi. "Trying to save some little kid's skin from some bully that was trying to cheat him out of his duel cards…" 

Yugi rolled his eyes, shaking his head slowly. "We'd better go help out," Yugi smiled. 

They set off at a run, and didn't have to go far before they saw Joey Wheeler, and a huge mountain of a teenager that looked something like a cross between a pig and a gorilla towering over his slender frame. Joey was shaking his small fist up at him. 

"Ya think you're tough, huh?" Joey was yelling, fury bright in his dark eyes. "Real tough guy, cheatin' a little kid outta his deck! I oughta teach you a lesson…" 

"You and what army, punk?" the big gorilla-pig snarled. 

Yugi sighed. This was so like Joey. Rash and impulsive, his street-hardened exterior concealed a boy who always defended a lost cause. And he always seemed to get himself into a lot of trouble doing it. How in the world was he going to take on this big ox? Although tall and stringy, Joey wasn't much bigger bulk-wise than Yugi.

"C'mon! I can take ya!!" Joey barked back defiantly, as if in answer to Yugi's thoughts. His sandy-blonde, shaggy hair had fallen over his eyes, and he pulled it out of the way. "Or do ya only beat up little kids?" 

Yugi groaned. He could see it coming. Téa covered her face. 

"Where's Tristan?" Yugi whispered. 

"I don't know. He didn't show yet. I think he's trying to hit on that new girl…" 

_ It figures_, Yugi thought. Tall, brown-haired Tristan was Joey's friend and self-appointed protector. It seemed he always showed up when Joey needed help. And if there was ever a time Joey needed help, it was now. But, according to Joey, he never needed help. And, to look at him, he didn't look like he wanted it: standing there with his fists clenched and his teeth bared. Playing the hero, while the small kid (Yugi assumed this was the kid who had been wronged by Gorilla-Pig) cowered on the ground, his face smeared with tears and dirt, looking hopefully up at this tall, thin teenager who had risen to his defense. 

_Boy, is he in for a surprise,_ Yugi thought desperately, _ Joey hasn't got a chance against this guy…_

_ …unless… _

Something ignited in Yugi's mind like a spark. He wasn't sure what inspired it, but things like this happened to Yugi—and he always went with it.

_"Joey!"_ he called out to his friend,_ "Joey! Challenge him to a Duel!" _

Joey started, and turned to look at Yugi. He looked like he hadn't realized they had been watching. Then he grimaced. 

"What, are you kiddin', Yug?" he shouted back incredulously, "'dis big oaf ain't gonna know nothin' about Duel Monsters…!" 

"'Duel Monsters'?" echoed the big oaf. "You know how to duel, punk?" 

Joey looked back at him with such an expression of disbelief on his face that Téa snorted with suppressed laughter. Yugi, however, remained serious—as he always did when Duel Monsters was involved. 

"Yeah," Joey said slowly, "and … do you…?" 

"I bet I can duel your miserable pants off, punk," Gorilla-Pig said menacingly. Joey glanced at Yugi wonderingly. Yugi always seemed to have some uncanny knowledge or sight into things that nobody should know. How did he know to suggest a Duel Monsters battle against this big jerk? How could he possibly know that he would accept? 

It didn't matter, anyway. He might not be able to beat this guy in a fight, but if there was anything he was sure of, he could beat him in a Duel Monsters battle. Especially with Yugi here… 

"Alright," he smirked, "you're on. Winner gets the kid's deck." 

The kid looked horrified. Yugi looked questioningly at Téa. 

"The big oaf took the kid's deck—said he wanted to look for trading cards," Téa answered Yugi's look. "Joey overheard the kid crying. That's what started it all—he refused to give the kid back his deck. Said 'you snooze, you lose' and started laughing at him. You know Joey; it drove him nuts and he ran at the guy like some vigilante or something. Poor Joey. He really wants to help. He's got such a big heart…" 

Yugi looked up at Joey's determined face. "I think Joey's gonna do just fine, Téa," he said with an odd smile that made Téa look twice at him. "And you're right—he does have a big heart. And so do his cards." 

The Heart of the Cards. Another decidedly Yugi thing that he both spoke of and believed in. It was Yugi's fault that they all believed in it now, because if there was anything that their adventures together had taught them, it was that the cards _ did_ have a heart—a guiding force that affected the outcome of a game. A force that could be called upon to work the game to the advantage of good. They didn't really understand it—in fact, neither did Yugi, completely—but they had faith that it was there, and that it would help them. 

"You're right, Yugi," Téa smiled, then turned back to Joey, who was pulling out his deck along with Gorilla-Pig. "Come on, Joey! Show him what a real Duelist is made of!!" 

Always the cheerleader, Téa once again had taken up her position. Yugi chimed in with his usual exuberance. 

"Yeah, Joey! We're right behind you!" 

"Yeah! All of us!" 

It was Tristan's voice. He smiled sheepishly as they all raised their eyebrows at him. 

"You're late," Yugi said with mock accusation in his voice. 

"Yeah, well…" Tristan mumbled. 

"So, did she bite?" Téa asked innocently. 

"Nah. Said she's got a boyfr…" Tristan trailed off, then looked indignantly at Téa, who had begun to laugh. "Hey! How did you know…?" 

Yugi grinned. He might have some special insight, but sometimes Téa was just as surprising… 

* * * 

The duel had been going on for awhile now. Joey still hadn't lost the reckless determination he had entered the battle with, but he had become more grim. The game wasn't going too well for Joey. He had lost his Flame Swordsman—one of his best cards—early in the game to an attack by a Red-Eyes Black Dragon, which was still on the field and obliterating all of Joey's cards. Gorilla-Pig had played a Defense Paralysis magic card, and Joey was stuck playing everything in attack mode, which wreaked havoc on his life points. Joey was mystified, as were Téa, Tristan and Yugi; the big bully was using the boy's deck, but he seemed to be playing it as if it were his own, and he kept taunting Joey about it, which didn't make Joey play any better. Worst of all, they knew he must be cheating, but they couldn't tell how. 

"Aaah, you couldn't duel your way out of a paper bag," Gorilla-Pig jeered. "Look—there goes your Swamp Monster! Tough luck, nimrod!" 

Joey's face reminded Yugi of a snarling dog. He wondered if his face looked the same, since he felt the same way himself. This was not right—the big bully was just toying with Joey. 

Yugi heard a small choking sound beside him. He remembered the kid that owned the deck Gorilla-Pig was playing with. He risked a glance at him. He looked so helpless. _ Poor kid_, Yugi thought sympathetically, _ even our cheering section isn't doing much for him…_

Yugi bent over the small boy. "Hey," he said, "how did you get your hands on a Red Eyes Black Dragon? That's a really rare card." 

The kid turned big, brown tear-filled eyes to Yugi. "That's not my card," he said shakily. 

Yugi blinked. "What do you mean?" 

"I mean it's not mine!" the kid repeated, tears still choking his voice. "That guy must have stacked it in my deck somehow. It just isn't _fair_! How is anyone here supposed to win against him if he keeps slipping cards like _ that_ in?" 

Yugi felt a bright surge of injustice. So. He was stacking the deck. Stacking it with other cards he had probably stolen… 

Yugi turned to Téa and whispered to her what the distraught boy had just told him. 

"That's not fair!" Téa hissed, echoing the little boy's words. "He could have all kinds of monster cards and magic cards up his sleeve, if you're right!" 

Yugi turned back to Joey, and suddenly found himself shouting. 

_ "Don't give up, Joey! He's cheating! He can't win! Trust the Heart of the Cards…!"_

Yugi didn't know what happened then. A light seemed to go on inside Joey's head and he looked at Yugi. Then they all felt a sort of wind that seemed like it was blowing, not around them or over them, but _ through_ them. Then Yugi—and it seemed like it was only Yugi—saw the girl. 

She was standing, it seemed, right beside Joey—almost over top of him like a sort of cloak. She was slender, with ivory-coloured skin, silver hair and silvery-green eyes that were fixed on the big Gorilla-Pig with a kind of quiet fury. Yugi blinked and rubbed his eyes, but when he looked at Joey again she was still there—and her face was just as angry. Yugi glanced at Téa and Tristan, but they didn't seem to be noticing anything strange. They just kept up their never-ending chorus of valiant cheers to keep Joey going. Almost frightened now, Yugi dragged his eyes back to the duel. 

She was still there—beautiful and imposing; her hand dropped down over Joey's, which had just reached down to his deck… 

… and Yugi suddenly had the most bizarre sensation of _ recognition_ slide, quicksilver, through his mind. He _ knew_ this girl… or… spirit… or… ghost? But how? He was certain he had never seen her before. But even though he had not seen her before, that same unexplainable awareness he had lived with since his puzzle had become his left no uncertainty in his mind; he _ knew_ this … presence… or whatever she was… 

"Téa," he whispered quietly to his friend beside him, "do you… see anything? Besides Joey and the Incredible Hulk there, I mean?" 

"Huh?" Téa replied absently. "What do you mean, Yug—oh!" 

Yugi's eyes shot back to the game. Joey had drawn his cards. 

It was a deadly combination that followed; deadly, for Gorilla-Pig, that is. Joey played a series of cards—that included Reborn the Monster—which not only allowed him to bring back his Flame Swordsman, but also gave him the ability to obliterate the Red-Eyes Black Dragon, and all of Gorilla-Pig's life points. With a scant 132 life points of his own, Joey had won the match in a matter of seconds. 

"Yes! Yes! Yes!" Téa cried out, jumping up and down like a kangaroo. 

"Way to go, Joe!!" Tristan yelled, punching at the air with his fist. 

Yugi, unusually subdued, smiled at Joey, who was thoroughly enjoying rubbing Gorilla-Pig's nose in his victory. He waved the little boy's cards in his face, saying "you snooze, you loose, dogface!", while the little boy stared up at Joey with shining, adoring eyes and Tristan stood behind both of them, arms crossed, like a particularly malevolent shadow in case the big oaf tried anything stupid. 

Joey handed the cards back to the boy's trembling hands, then waved at Yugi in a triumphant gesture. "The Heart of the Cards, Yug!" he shouted gleefully. 

Yugi smiled again and nodded. Yes, it was the Heart of the Cards, as he remembered saying to Joey just before he had seen the girl. Yugi thought hard, the smile on his face dissolving into a frown. He had seen her—she had stood there as real as Téa had stood next to him. He had seen her place her hand on the cards just as Joey had done the same. And Joey's luck had turned, almost impossibly, to victory. And for just a moment he had seen her smile… and then she had disappeared. 

And one of the cards Joey had drawn—Yugi was sure he didn't have it in his deck. 

Maybe he was wrong…but… 

He would find out for sure. Later. 

* * * 

Later, at the Burger Palace, the four of them sat having a pop and Yugi told his friends what he had seen during the game. 

"You know," Téa said, looking thoughtful, "I think something weird was going on there, too. I didn't _ see_ anything, but I _ felt_ something. Like a … sort of … living wind or something …" 

Joey looked dubious. "Aaah, I don' know," he said. "Some girl, standin' over me, guiding my cards? Sounds kinda far-fetched…" 

"A girl, huh?" Tristan broke in. "What did she look like?" 

Yugi didn't know why Tristan's question irritated him so much. "She looked like a girl," he said shortly. Téa, hearing the note in his voice, shot him a look but didn't press the issue. 

"Why does some magic girl have to be the reason I won?" Joey went on, oblivious to the brief discomfort in the air. "Can't it just have been because of my superior duelin' skills?" 

Téa cast him a withering look. "Oh, _please_," she said. 

"Just what are you tryin' to say, Téa?" 

"Joey, could I see your deck?" Yugi interrupted. 

Joey gave Yugi a strange look. "Sure. Why?" 

"In your last move, you played the Magical Hats," Yugi explained. "I know I have that card in my deck, but I didn't think you had it in yours…" 

"Are you sayin' I was cheatin'?" Joey flared. 

"No," Yugi answered quickly, "I just… didn't know you had that card." 

Joey's indignant face suddenly became thoughtful. "Come to think of it," he said quietly, "I don't think I _ do_ have that card. But… how…?" 

"It would still be there if you have it," Yugi said, rifling through Joey's deck. 

"Well?" Joey asked apprehensively as Yugi reached the last card. Yugi stared at the deck for a minute before finally slowly raising his eyes to meet Joey's. 

"It's not here," he said. 

* * * 

They had all congregated at Téa's house, watching a televised Duel Monsters game on Téa's T.V. It was the best way they could think of to take their minds off of the bizarre incident that had happened at the park, since they had all pretty well exhausted their well of explanations. They had thrown around a few ideas, anything from a Duel Monster spirit of some sort, to the ghost of the kid's great-great-great-great grandmother. They were all equally far-fetched, and none had satisfied the nagging unease that remained in Yugi's stomach. So, for now they dismissed it, and watched another battle that had nothing to do with them. 

"Listen, guys, _ Les Sylphides_ is on in about ten minutes," Téa said plaintively. "Can I _ please_ watch it? You've been watching those guys go at it for two hours!" 

"Yeah, yeah, don't worry, Téa," Joey said absently. "It's coming to a head soon, I can feel it—dude, did ya see _that_?" 

"Yeah! Man, it seems like these guys are goin' for blood!" Tristan exclaimed. 

Intrigued, Téa turned her attention back to the match, which had lost her interest an hour ago. Duel Monsters, being so competitive, could get nasty at times, depending on the combatants. These two, both of them regional champions, seemed to have something at stake. They looked like they should have been battling on the field instead of the very realistic KaibaCorp virtual monsters that were swinging swords and clubs at each other. 

"That guy plays like Seto Kaiba," Yugi commented on one of the players. "He's so ruthless and precise…" 

"Yeah, Yug, but Seto only played like that once wit' you," Joey reminded him. "Seto Kaiba usually liked to play wit' people's minds before he took 'em down." 

Yugi had to agree. Seto Kaiba, international champion—whom he could see watching in the stands with his usual cold scrutiny—had been ruthless and precise only once with him, and that one time, his brother's soul had hung in the balance. Another of the weird, surreal shadow powers had been at work at the time, wielded by Maximilian Pegasus. At the time he had shown himself to be a power-hungry and soulless businessman, himself the creator of Duel Monsters, who also possessed a millennium item—the Millenium Eye—which gave him the power he had wanted, along with a sick, twisted desire (and ability) to suck in peoples' souls to gain more. Yugi had beaten Seto Kaiba in their first match, which had shaken Seto's cold confidence in his own abilities. In the match for his brother Mokuba's soul, however, Seto had won—had won only because he had placed himself in a position of personal harm or even death had Yugi made the move required to win. 

Yugi put the memory from his mind. He never liked to think about that duel. Of all of them, that one had shaken him the most. He smiled to himself. He supposed Seto Kaiba had got him back after all… 

It was Seto Kaiba's face, which he happened to be looking at just then, that brought Yugi roughly back into the present. Seto—who was usually about as animated as a rock and just as warm—had become very pale, his eyes wide and staring. Both of his slender hands clutched the chair he sat on so tightly that Yugi could see that his knuckles were white. Mystified, Yugi followed Seto's panicked gaze… 

She was there. 

Yugi saw her—standing over one of the duelists, her hand on the deck. Tall, slender, Silver hair, silvery-green eyes—unmistakably the same girl. Yugi scrambled off of his chair, gaping at the television and pushing Joey roughly out of the way to get a closer look. 

"HEY! What the…?" 

"What's going on, Yu—" 

Téa's sentence finished in a gasp as she looked again at the T. V. screen. 

"Who… who's _that_?" she asked in a stunned voice. 

Yugi looked sharply up at Téa. "You… you see her too?" 

Téa's large eyes left the screen only for a moment. She looked full at Yugi. Her face was as white as Kaiba's. 

"Yes," she whispered. "Yes, Yugi. If you mean the silver girl with the long hair, I see her…" 

Yugi's mouth hung open as his eyes flew back to the T.V. She was still there, but it seemed that the duelists didn't see her, nor did the audience. But from the look on Seto Kaiba's face, he saw her. And so did Téa, as her stricken expression confirmed. 

"What are you guys blatherin' about?" Joey spluttered, picking himself up from the floor where Yugi had pushed him. 

"Yeah. What girl? Where?" Tristan squinted into the T.V. 

Yugi couldn't answer. At least he knew he hadn't lost his mind, not if Kaiba and Téa could see her, too. Téa and Yugi watched, riveted, as Tristan and Joey craned and clambered behind them, making all kinds of indignant noises, trying to get a glimpse at the screen. Yugi saw the girl raise one slender hand, the other remaining on the duelist's deck, and point at the opposing duelist. The expression on her exquisite face was severe—she looked commanding, almost frightening. Then Yugi became aware of a ….coldness around the other duelist. It was only an impression, just a sort of …darkness that seemed to hover around him like an aura. Yugi's gaze shot to Seto Kaiba, who—as he had expected—had gone even more rigid, his face as pale as death. Yugi knew he was remembering their first match, when a dark power had surrounded Seto as well, and Yugi had banished it, breaking its control over him… 

He saw the girl draw a card—drawing it with the duelist—and her other hand remained pointing at the dark force around the opponent, as though holding it at bay. 

With that single card, the duelist mopped up. The game was over. He had won. 

"Yugi," Téa whispered, "who is she?" 

Yugi leapt to the T.V., slamming his hands against the screen. 

_ "Who are you?"_

Suddenly, the girl looked at him—I mean, looked _ at_ him—as though she could see through the T.V. right into Yugi's heart and soul. Yugi stared back, his eyes wide, feeling his heart pound wildly in his throat. 

And she was gone. 

Yugi sat back, closing his eyes, his heart still hammering. He could feel his hands shaking. He jumped when he felt Téa's gentle hand on his own, and he opened his eyes to look searchingly into Téa's. 

"Yugi," she said quietly. "Maybe you should go to Professor Snow." 

* * * 

Yugi, who had looked so forward to the weekend, found himself at the school the next day standing in front of an office. The name on the door read 'Professor J. Snow'. 

The school, of course, was deserted. Today was a P. D. Day, which was why Yugi hoped he would at least find Professor Snow at work. He had rehearsed what he was going to ask him, but he was nervous. He hated talking to teachers. 

Screwing up his resolve, Yugi tapped on the door. Waited. 

_ Probably too quiet_, Yugi thought. He raised his hand to knock again… and jumped three feet backwards as the door swung open before he could touch it. Professor Snow's tall, greying frame stepped into the doorway to look, surprised, at Yugi. 

Professor Snow was his History teacher. Ancient History was his specialty, as he had once been an archaeologist who had excavated many Egyptian ruins. He had been a colleague of Yugi's grandfather, and where Grandpa had specialized in the Ancient Egyptian Duel Monsters game itself, Professor Snow had concentrated on the legends and the lore surrounding the origins of the game. If anyone would know anything about the strange apparition of the girl he had seen it was Professor Snow. 

"H-hello, Professor!" Yugi stammered too loudly. "I suppose you're wondering why I'm here?" 

"The thought had crossed my mind," Professer Snow said dryly. 

Yugi laughed, again too loudly, and he cursed inwardly at how idiotic he must sound. 

"Well, Professor," Yugi tried again, "I just wanted… needed to talk to you." 

"Well, Yugi, I have a meeting…" 

"Please, Professor, it will only take a minute!" Yugi persisted. Perhaps it was the desperate note in Yugi's voice, but Professor Snow stepped back and gestured at Yugi to enter his office. 

The office was small and full of all kinds of books with titles like 'The Great Pyramids: Solving the Mystery' and 'An Archaeologist's Guide to Ancient Ruins'. Prints of Egyptian paintings hung on the wall, and a large imitation bust of Nefretiri stared blankly at Yugi from behind the desk that Professor Snow now moved behind. He folded his hands and indicated with his eyes that Yugi sit down at the chair in front of his desk. 

Yugi sat down, looking as though the slightest sound would cause him to shoot out of his chair and through the roof. He tried to calm down, but he didn't like the vacant eyes of Nefretiri staring at him from behind Professor Snow. 

"So, Yugi, you have my attention," Professor Snow said. "Please use it before I have to go." 

"Professor, is there any ancient Duel Monsters legend about a girl?" Yugi blurted out. Professor Snow looked hard at Yugi. 

"Several, as a matter of fact," he said, smiling in a kind way that calmed Yugi's jangling nerves slightly. "Perhaps you should be a little more specific." 

So, taking a deep breath, Yugi told him about the girl he had seen twice now at two different matches. When he had finished, Professor Snow looked thoughtful. 

"Really?" he asked suddenly. "A girl, you say?" 

"Yes," Yugi affirmed. "She seemed like—a spirit. But she seemed solid at the same time. She couldn't have been human; she was too…"—Yugi groped for words, then shrugged—"too perfect." 

"Curious," the professor said, screwing up his face. "There _ is_ a particular legend about a girl…" 

"There is?" Yugi piped up at once. Professor Snow smiled. 

"Yes. The Legend of the Queen of Hearts. Ironically enough, Yugi, it has to do with… the Heart of the Cards, which you are so devoted to." 

Yugi blanched. The Heart of the Cards…? 

"The legend has its roots at the origins of the Duel Monsters game in ancient Egypt," the professor continued. "It was said that when the game was created, the duelists used their magic to conjure real monsters from the Shadow Realm. The monsters were basically good in nature and the game was only played to hone magic skills, and for good-natured competition. 

"As time went on, however, the game became corrupt. Power, as it so often does, had twisted the minds of some of the magic-users, and they began conjuring up darker beasts so as to gain more control over their colleagues. These evil monsters had no concern for fairness or the welfare of the duelists, only power and evil. They began to overpower the good forces, as the dark ones became more numerous…" 

The professor paused. Yugi listened intently, not realizing that his fists were clenched. 

"Those magicians who had fought for good—one in particular—decided to put a stop to the growing control of evil. Each of the magicians had his own way of controlling each beast he had at his disposal. This was his Heart, Yugi. His own controlling magic and ability to summon the beast he needed to win. What this particular magic-user decided to do was to call upon a spirit—a good spirit—who would be given the power to control the game for fairness and right. She would have ultimate control over the Hearts of the magicians and the beasts that were summoned, and could change at will the outcome of the game. She was the Queen of Hearts. 

"What he didn't prepare for was his own heart. When he summoned the Queen, he fell in love with her." 

"But," Yugi broke the short silence that followed with a nervous whisper, "how could he fall in love… with a spirit?" 

"How indeed," the professor smiled wistfully. "Love is a strange thing, Yugi. You see, the Queen could be solid—physical, that is, like you or I—at some times in this world. When she was, she was vulnerable, and that vulnerability put her at risk from the dark forces that wished to destroy her. The magic-user who had conjured her had to protect her. Maybe that is how he fell in love with her. But love cannot make a spirit human. Nor can it make a human the same type of spirit she was. Knowing this, they both knew this was an impossible love. So they instead swore to protect one another and fight for one another, always for the good." 

"So, did… did this Queen of Hearts work? Did it save the game?" 

Professor Snow frowned, and looked seriously at Yugi. 

"Legend has it that their love was their downfall, but no one knows how," he said quietly. "Often times he protected the Queen at risk to himself. Perhaps she became vulnerable and he was not able to draw enough power to save her—I don't know. All that is known is that this same magic-user who conjured the Queen of Hearts was also the one who trapped the power of the game inside the Millenium Items." 

Professor Snow stood up and looked down at the ashen face of Yugi, who suddenly seemed very small in his big clothes. When he spoke, Yugi could hear a sympathetic note to his voice. 

"Did it work? I don't know, Yugi. One thing I can say is that if this girl is the Queen of Hearts, there must be some terribly dark forces at work in this Duel Monster game we are resurrecting now. Dark enough so that the need for the Queen has summoned her. 

"And now," he said, moving briskly from behind his desk, "I really must get to that meeting. I'm late as it is. See you on Monday, Yugi." 

Without waiting for a reply, he walked out of the room, leaving Yugi with a very large mess to clean up in his head. 

* * * 

When Yugi returned to his friends, he told them what he had learned. 

"The Queen of Hearts," Téa mused after hearing Yugi relay what Professor Snow had told him. "Do you really think that's who she is, Yugi?" 

"I don't know, Téa," Yugi sighed. "It just seems to make the most sense. It's only a legend, though…" 

"Yeah, but so's the whole Duel Monsters thing, and we seen it work before, too," Joey interjected. "An' how about your Millennium Puzzle, an' the Shadow Realm, an' the Millennium Eye, an—" 

"Yes, I know, Joey, I get the point," Yugi laughed. "Boy, am I glad we're camping in the park tonight. I need to get away from all this." 

"Yeah," Téa agreed emphatically, "and, for once _ I_ want to do something else besides Duel Monsters!" 

* * * 

Yugi, Téa, Tristan and Joey set up camp in the early evening when the long shadows of the trees still let enough sun through to warm the air. They had built a fire, but had spilt a whole bag of marshmallows on the ground. This had ended up in a marshmallow fight, which had left them all laughing and breathless, and for an hour they were pulling marshmallows out of the most amazing places. 

They then decided to try staring contests, which gave them all the giggles. Yugi was thoroughly enjoying watching as Téa and Tristan went at it, but a movement among the trees beyond caught his eye. Getting up, he walked to the edge of their campsite and peered into the bushes. 

Silver. He saw a gleam of silver… 

Completely serious now, he ducked into prickly branches and leaves that pulled and scratched him, following the silver movement ahead. It moved with a fluid grace, soundless, and he cursed inwardly as he fought the whiplike branches that bent and sprang back around him, trying incessantly to grab his clothes and trip him up. Leaves rustling, twigs snapping as he passed, he was the direct opposite in movement to the silver form ahead. He was just berating himself for even trying this in the first place when he almost collided with the girl. She was standing in front of him. 

Speechless, Yugi just stared at her. He had never been so close to her, and from this distance he could see how truly flawless she was. It was almost unnatural, like some artist's impression of perfection. Her silver hair shimmered in the waning sunlight, and for a long moment they just stared at each other. Then her eyes dropped curiously to Yugi's Millennium Puzzle. When she brought her gaze up to meet his again, her eyes once again seemed to look through him, as though she was trying to see something more. 

"Why are you following me?" she asked abruptly. Her voice was something like music, like bells. 

"I… I… need to know… who you are," Yugi stammered. 

"It is none of your concern." 

She turned to go, but Yugi impulsively reached for her and grabbed her arm. To his surprise, it was solid. 

"Please," Yugi pleaded. 

She looked at him—only looked at him—but he withered under the gaze that was as cold and sharp as a steel blade. He suddenly felt terribly uncomfortable, and dropped her arm as though it was hurting him. Her eyes didn't leave his face, though, and her expression softened. She spoke again, but this time her voice was more gentle. 

"You must go. It is not safe here." 

She turned and melted into the trees. 

Yugi stood for a fraction of a second, then fought furiously back to their camp through the bushes, ignoring the pain as the branches whipped and slapped his face. He burst with a flurry of leaves into the clearing where his friends sat, still engrossed in their staring battle. 

"I saw her!!" he panted. 

Téa and Tristan broke their intense concentration. They turned, startled, to Yugi. 

"What? Saw who?" Téa asked. 

"That girl!" Yugi was almost shouting. "She was just over there. She was _solid_, but then…" 

What came after 'then' was lost in a terrible noise. It sounded like something halfway between a roar and a ripping sound, and the temperature of the air around them plummeted drastically. But the cold was not just in temperature alone. It was death-like, soulless—something magical, something evil. Something they had all felt before—in the Shadow Realm. 

They were all on their feet in an instant. 

"Let's go!" Yugi shouted. Without hesitation, the four of them tore off in the direction of the sound. 

"It came from over here!" Téa cried. Yugi, Tristan, and Joey raced into what seemed like a small clearing on the edge of a rather steep rock cliff. Standing in the clearing—and they all saw her this time—was the girl, but she was not alone. 

"Holy crap, what _ is_ that thing?" 

Joey's loud exclamation voiced all of their thoughts as they raised their eyes ('way up!) to the… _ thing_ that stood menacingly over the girl. It was impossible to tell if its shape was human or animal. It was black, and looked like some sort of… hole in the fabric of life. And it was like a vacuum that sucked in the life from around it, as though it was keeping itself alive from it. Yugi suddenly felt very cold. 

"It looks like some sort of Duel Monster!" Tristan cried, looking around frantically. "Is somebody havin' a duel around here…?" 

Yugi looked at the thing, and he felt a large, black foreboding growing in his chest. _No_, he thought, _ this is no Duel Monster…_

It was a presence, a strong presence, that didn't belong here. It belonged in another world, another time. The dark power resonating from the thing touched something inside Yugi—something that awoke that all-too-familiar presence within his soul, the presence that had become an intrinsic part of him when he had solved his millennium puzzle, and he felt it course through him as it always did when he needed it, strong and powerful. Then he looked at the silver-haired girl through these eyes… 

…and that spark of recognition finally made a connection inside his mind. _ My god_, he thought, _ it can't be…_

And the girl, as though sensing his presence, looked at him—and her silver-green eyes, too, widened as she looked into his own, and he saw recognition there, too—recognition, and fear. 

_ "Stop!"_ she cried out, _ "You cannot! You're not ready! Please…!"_

He didn't know what she was talking about, but… yet… he did somehow. Somehow, that altered presence within him knew, and harnessed itself with a terrible strength… 

But her moment of distraction was fatal. The creature before her reared back, calling a black power from within itself. A power that it flung at her heart… 

The girl's scream rent the air as the flung power hit her with enough force to throw her three hundred feet backwards. Backwards, and over the edge of the cliff to the jagged, rocky ground below. 

_ "Cora!!"_

Yugi heard his voice—but not his voice—explode out of his chest with all of the strength he had harnessed at the girl's bidding. It was her name—he knew he had shouted her name, but how he knew it was a mystery to him. A mystery he could not fathom now because he suddenly felt an overwhelming sorrow and remorse, but this time it was not his own, but the _ presence within_ him that felt it. And his mind—his own mind—flashed several things across his memory in that fraction of a second of suspended time: 

He saw the moment when Maximilian Pegasus had stolen Grandpa's soul. He remembered his altered presence—the presence coursing through his veins now—how it had evaporated from him like water drops flung on a fire… 

He saw another battle, where the virtual monsters had seemed so real, where he had harnessed that presence with nothing short of a mammoth strength of his own, so that his own attack would not take Seto Kaiba's life… 

He remembered these things, remembered them only because this time it seemed as if his persona was working in reverse. Where, in each of those instances, his own sorrow, his own remorse had caused the presence within him to diminish; so this time, the sorrow and remorse of his power, his altered presence, caused himself to diminish, and the presence to grow more powerful… 

He took a few steps forward. He noticed, distantly, his friends looking at him, saw growing terror in their eyes as they looked at his face. But he was too enveloped with the power that was pulsing through him like a tempest, fueled by an immeasurable rage against what this _ thing_ had done to Cora. 

He drew his hands together in a way he had never done before, but yet had done countless times, somewhere, somehow… The power was a light, a pulsing light that was growing between his hands. He pulled his hands slowly apart, and the light between them grew. 

He heard Téa's scream from a long way off, but he was too far away. He only saw the creature before him, and he flung his hands out towards it, flinging his own power at it. He was aware of the lightning shooting far out, striking the creature fully in the chest. It roared and screeched—and disappeared. 

Yugi ran forward, the creature forgotten. He ran to the cliff and leapt off of it in the strength of the power coursing blindingly within him. He touched lightly down on the rocks, and stumbled to Cora's broken figure crumpled there. 

Cora's eyes were closed, but she seemed to know he was there. She tried to lift her head, and winced horribly. 

"Don't," Yugi heard himself say. He was so aware of the profound pain in his heart, and some distant part of him wondered why he felt this way about someone he didn't even know… 

…but… 

Cora opened her eyes. The pain there struck him deeply as if it were his own. Her eyes met his, narrowing as she looked deeply into them. 

"Yami…" she whispered brokenly, "Yami…" 

Her eyes rolled up into her head, and closed. 

_No_, Yugi thought, tears burning in his eyes, _ Cora, please…_

Part of him still didn't understand this depth of emotion, stronger and more painful than any he had ever experienced. He felt himself draw once more on that power that was still so strong within him, felt it course through him again, and he took Cora up into his arms. 

He held her close to him, cradling her against him and he felt his power transmit itself to Cora, felt it course through them both as though they were one being. And he felt Cora inhale and exhale deeply. Again. 

Yugi drew back from her, and looked into her face, so close to his own now. He saw the creases of pain smooth out, and felt her rhythmic breathing, which was easy and peaceful. 

Only then did Yugi come to himself, and feel that power withdraw deep back inside, and he was abruptly aware of where he was and what he was doing. And he felt, also, an overpowering weakness, as though he had just used up an amazing amount of something that was keeping him alive. 

He became aware that he was holding Cora more tenderly than he ever had held anyone in his young life, and he was at once embarrassed and ashamed and he pushed her rather roughly away. His arms and legs felt like jelly as he stumbled backwards and sat down hard, and he tried desperately to piece together what had just happened to him. 

"My god, Yugi…" 

He hadn't even heard them approach, but he turned his head up to see Téa, Joey and Tristan standing behind him. How long had they been there? They were staring at him as though he was someone they didn't even know, like they were afraid of him. 

_ But… guys… you're my friends… my best friends…_

Joey's eyes were riveted on Yugi's hands. Yugi looked down at them. They were burnt and blistered, as though he had thrust them into a fire. 

Heart pounding, he glared wildly back up at each of them in turn, suddenly frightened. He began to tremble and shake violently. He felt his blood rush up to his head in a wave of dizziness, and bright stars showered past his eyes. Behind them, his friends, and the world around them tilted crazily as he clutched at a sudden and severe pain in his head… 

Yugi never felt the ground when he hit it. 

* * * 

Disturbing dreams and images were flying randomly through Yugi's mind. Terrible monsters, blinding light, overwhelming sadness… 

His eyes half-opened, and he was aware of Téa's careworn face staring into his own. The fear he had seen earlier was still in her eyes, but it was overshadowed now by concern for him. _ Good old Téa_, he thought, _ I knew she would come through…_

He blinked awake. "What happened?" he asked muzzily. 

"You passed out," Téa replied in a strained voice. 

Remembering, he looked at his hands. They were bandaged. "Where's Cora?" 

Téa flinched, but answered steadily. "She's over there. She's still sleeping. Yugi…?" 

Yugi looked expectantly at her. 

"Yugi, what happened to you…?" 

"I… I don't know. Aaaugh…" 

He had tried to sit up, and the pain seared through his head again. He sank back down. "What did I do…?" 

"You damn near scared the crap out of us, Yug." 

He hadn't noticed Joey sitting on his opposite side. Téa shook her head. 

"Do you mean to tell me you don't remember _ anything_ you did? Anything at all?" 

"Yes… I mean…" Yugi trailed off. Did he remember? There was a beast—a beast that hurt Cora. And… 

"I remember I was really angry," Yugi answered weakly. His head was starting to throb again. 

"But, _why_, Yugi? Who _ is_ she? Is she…?" 

Téa didn't finish her question. Yugi knew she wanted to know if Cora was the Queen of Hearts. But she seemed to want to know about him, too. What did he have to do with the Queen? She looked like she was really trying to understand. So Yugi really tried to remember. He closed his eyes. 

"I don't know. It has something to do with my puzzle…I think…" 

Téa and Joey exchanged nervous glances. "It's just that…we ain't never seen you like that, Yug" Joey stammered. "Not even when you battle. You's is different then, but, this time… it was like you was someone else completely…" 

Yugi's eyes flew open. "Why? What happened? _ Tell me!_" He felt an ice of fear heavy in his stomach again. "Please. I need to know." 

Téa and Joey exchanged glances again. "Well," Téa began haltingly, "where do you want us to start?" 

"How about," Yugi said as he tried to sit up again, and winced, "what happened to that monster." 

"You don't remember?" 

"Well, sort of …" Frustration writhed through Yugi's innards, and the pain in his head increased again. "There was a… light…" He looked again at his bandaged hands, then closed his eyes once more. 

"We were just standing there," Téa continued, her face apprehensive, "and that thing shot something at the girl… Cora…" 

"I remember that," Yugi interjected, more irritably that he had wanted. His head was really starting to hurt. 

"Yes, well, she flew over the cliff, and then, well… I don't know, Yugi. I felt this—incredible power beside me, and I looked at you…and…" 

"I never seen you look like that before, Yug," Joey broke in as Téa trailed off. "You was _scary_, man! Your eyes…" 

"It was like you… I don't know, Yugi," Téa jumped in again, "you _changed_, somehow. I mean… _ really_ changed…" 

"Did you ever," Joey agreed emphatically. "Then, you sorta did like this"—Joey drew his hands together, and drew them apart slowly; Yugi's stomach gave an awful lurch—"and there was this lightning that shot out of your hands. You shot it right at that thing…" 

"Lightning?" Yugi felt the blood draining from his face. "I shot _ lightning_ out of my hands…?" _ This is ridiculous…_ "Are you sure you saw this? Maybe you were seeing things…" 

"We _ all_ saw it, Yugi," Téa replied, sounding a little exasperated. "If only one of us had seen it, maybe you could say that. But all three of us?" 

"Maybe it was that creature! Maybe it had you under some sort of spell…" Yugi grasped desperately at something, anything that would change what they were telling him—what he didn't want to admit was true. Téa's expression killed his attempts. 

"Your hands, Yugi, remember?" 

Yugi didn't want to look at his bandaged hands again. "Okay," he mumbled. 

"Anyways, that lightning—you know, the stuff that came out of your burned up hands—that lightning hit the monster, and it sort of… disintegrated. Just like a virtual Duel Monster…" 

Yugi said nothing, even though he knew they _ so_ wanted him to say something. His stomach was doing horrible, plunging somersaults. 

"Well, you didn't stop there," Téa continued crisply. "You ran to the cliff and jumped off…" 

"What?" The word came out before Yugi could stop it. 

"You jumped off the cliff, Yug," Joey chimed in. "You jumped off, and landed on your feet on the rocks down there like some sort of super cat…" 

"And the way you looked at… _her_," Téa sounded irritated. "I never saw you look at anyone like that before, Yugi…" 

"She should'a been dead," Joey interrupted solemnly. "She should'a been dead. She was all crumpled up down there like some kid's rag doll. Her neck…" He trailed off, looking deliberately away from Yugi. 

"You picked her up and held her against you," Téa, too, looked away. "You… just held her there, and…" 

"You was like, _glowing_, sort of. I… don't know, Yug. But then she…" 

"She sort of straightened out…" Téa finished for Joey. 

"Yeah. Then… you looked at her—like, uh, she was," Joey groped for words, looking extremely uncomfortable, "someone real special." 

Yugi blushed scarlet, wanting them to stop, but needing to hear it all. He felt like his head was going to split open. He remembered. He remembered. _ And, oh, it hurt. It hurt…_

"Where's Cora?" he asked again, his eyes squinting from the pain. 

"We told you already," Téa replied, the concern in her face mounting as she became aware of Yugi's obvious discomfort, "she's sleeping over there. Tristan's watching her…" 

"I need to talk to her." 

"You need to rest…" 

"No! I _ need_ to talk to her, Téa! Now!" 

Téa and Joey once again exchanged worried glances, but Téa nodded. They stood up, and helped Yugi, wincing, to his feet. Yugi tried to make his boneless legs work as they stepped slowly towards the edge of the camp where Tristan was… 

…and they found him fast asleep. Alone. 

"Tristan! Tristan, wake up!" Joey cried out to him. 

"Huhnn?" Tristan mumbled. He saw them and started awake. "What's up? What…?" 

"She's gone," Yugi's voice sounded as hollow as he felt. 

They stood helplessly, staring around them, Tristan looking sheepish and terribly guilty. 

"I… I'm sorry, Yugi," he finally said timidly. "I was watchin' her. Then I just got real sleepy…" 

Yugi sighed heavily. "She would have left anyway, Tristan. It's not your fault…" 

"What do you mean…?" Téa asked sharply. 

"I… don't know. I just… know she would have gone…" 

"Yug! Look!" 

Joey's voice shook him into the present. He turned quickly to him, and saw him holding a small, makeshift envelope. There was a name scrawled on the front: _ Yami_

Yugi started. An image flashed into his mind: 

_ He saw himself standing over Cora, crumpled at the base of the cliff. She had looked up into his face, and had said a name: "Yami"_

Yugi took the envelope and opened it slowly. No one asked him why he took it. No one asked him about the name on the envelope. No one asked him anything. 

There was a note inside. A note, and… 

"Cards…?" Joey stammered. 

"Duel Cards…?" Yugi trailed off, turning the cards over. Again, he felt his heart pound faster, felt a dizzying rush of blood to his head. 

"No way," Joey's voice was hoarse with incredulity. "No way…" 

"Joey… this can't be…" there was a tremor in Yugi's voice. "These… my god… they're my… Exodia Cards…" 

"But… how…?" Téa whispered. 

Yugi said nothing, staring at the note. 

"What sort of language is that?" Tristan asked. 

"It's Egyptian," Yugi answered vaguely. "Egyptian hieroglyphs." 

"What does it say?" Joey asked. 

"I don't know," Yugi answered quickly, averting his eyes. Joey pursed his lips, looking disappointed, and shrugged. Téa, though, looked sharply up at Yugi, and he knew she could tell he was lying, and he waited for the accusation, the piercing stare… 

…but she said nothing. Maybe she understood why he had lied. Or she didn't want to know. 

Yugi shoved the note into his pocket. 

* * * 

Later, as the three of his friends lay asleep around the fire, Yugi sat next to the dying light, holding the note in his hands. He knew what it said, and he had been reading it over and over since his friends had drifted off: 

_ Yami _

_ I am sorry I had to draw on your power so soon. Please forgive me for not seeing who you were before now. Had I known, I would not have allowed you to do what you did. I would have been far more careful. _

_ It is happening again, which is why I have returned, but I suppose you know this. After all, you, also, have returned. For this reason, I know you will understand why I must leave. I'm afraid, Yami. I don't want past mistakes to happen again, and I hope I have not already drawn you into danger. Just know that I will always fight at your side, as I had sworn to always do. _

_ I return the Exodia Cards to you. You had lost them once. Guard them carefully, this time. _

_ Cora_

He read it over again. His head had stopped hurting awhile ago, but it didn't stop his mind from churning in futile waves over Cora's words. What did she mean, _ 'it's happening again'_? Was it the dark powers Professor Snow had talked about? But _ 'past mistakes'_, and not seeing who he was sooner—what did that have to do with? Was it the part of the legend that Professor Snow didn't know about? The fall of the Queen? 

…and—who was Yami…? 

And _ how_ did she get his Exodia Cards back? They had had been thrown into the ocean by a deceitful duelist in an attempt to cheat him of victory. They had been lost forever… 

…but here they were… 

She must be, then. The Queen of Hearts. How else could she have returned Exodia? But he was still confused. There were so many things he didn't know: about Cora, about his own dark power, about the past that this presence within him might have had. If this note was for him—and he was sure it was—she had told him she had sworn to protect him. Did this mean—and his heart gave a lurch—that this presence within him was somehow the same magician who had fallen in love with Cora? And what did that mean for him, for Yugi? 

Yugi sighed. There was only one thing he knew right now: Even though he knew she was still out there somewhere, he felt a profound emptiness within him since Cora had left them. 

Yugi curled up on the ground, watching the fire's embers glow warmly in the dark, as sleep began to descend in a heavy, welcome weight onto his head. And in that twilight, halfway between awake and asleep, there was another thing he knew too, somehow, from that presence that lived inside him now: there was a magic, a power in Cora that was one with his own. And now that she _ had_ returned, he did not feel so completely alone in what he had to do…


	2. Part II The Legend

_I thought long and hard about actually posting this before I finally went with it. When I wrote this story, I had re-written a lot of characters that were probably defined in other Yu-Gi-Oh! media that I am unfamiliar with. I thought of researching it out and re-writing my fiction so that the characters matched, but then it wouldn't be my story anymore, would it? So, I decided against it. Here, for what it's worth-with my original ideas and characters-is the Legend of the Queen of Hearts..._

_There's a lot more 'damn' in this one (the mouth on that Yami, I tell you...), so I upped the rating to PG-13, just to be safe..._

The Queen of Hearts: Part II

The Legend 

_I'm dreaming_, thought Yugi. 

He saw himself standing, staring a short distance away. As strange as this may sound to you or I, Yugi was not surprised by this in the least. He had seen this presence before, had spoken to it even, in this same half-formed dreamworld he now walked in. It was spirit of the Millennium Puzzle he wore. He knew this presence looked like him, but at the same time, it was distinctly _ not_ him. It was bigger. Older. Wiser. He had developed a respect for this presence inside him, but there had been times when he had feared it. This not being one of those times, however, he walked closer to him. It felt like he was walking through water, slow and ponderous. As he drew nearer, he saw the usually stern face of his other presence-and it was so sad. This upset him, since this part of him had always been so quietly serene, commanding and confident. He stood silent beside him for a moment, and when the spirit did not turn or acknowledge him, he opened his mouth to speak. His words sounded muffled and strange, as though he were enclosed in a small room. 

"You took control of me. Why?" 

The answer came immediately, and though it was not the answer he expected, it did not surprise him. 

"I had to." 

"Why?" he asked again. He was not angry. He was just confused. 

"You don't understand." 

In his dream, Yugi took the arm of his other presence. Looked at him. He felt detached and surreal. 

"I need to," he said. 

The presence looked at him, and the sorrow in his eyes was so unfathomable that Yugi almost looked away. But he didn't, and his presence spoke at last. 

"Do you _ want_ to understand?" 

Wordlessly, Yugi nodded. 

"I can show you," his presence said, his voice as sad as his eyes. "But I warn you: you will feel everything-because I am part of you now. You will feel it all as if you were there, as I had been." 

Yugi hesitated. Did he want to understand the terrible sorrow and fury he had felt when Cora had been attacked? Did he really want to know such strong emotion, and such awesome power? 

Fear knotted his stomach. But... he had to understand. He had to know... in case it happened again... 

It was a lesson he had learned before. From a duelist named Mai Valentine. Face his fear... 

"Show me," he said. He didn't even recognize his own voice. 

His presence looked at him for a long time. Yugi met the gaze, became so caught up in its intensity that he almost didn't see the hand of his altered persona before him rise and gently touch his forehead. Even in his dream, the hand felt warm and alive-and it was almost vibrating with a strange power... 

...and there was a flurry of lights and sound and wind. Time-so many, many, many years... 

...he was a magician. A magician in Ancient Egypt... 

* * * 

_ That was close. That was far too close..._

His heels made crunching sounds on the rock floor as he swept down the long corridor from the duel arena. He could feel his hands shaking as much with suppressed rage as from the weakness at the amount of magic he had to use to control that Soul-Sucker they had conjured from the Shadow Realm. He had almost watched another comrade fall. Something had to be done... 

"Yami!" 

Stopping his headlong progress down the hall for the sound of Pharoah's beckon, he turned slowly to face him, still too angry to say anything yet. Pharoah approached him, his face white. 

"Thank you for saving Potiphera's life," he said quietly. "He is my only son..." 

He faltered when he saw the look on Yami's face and, misunderstanding, turned his own face away in shame. 

"You feel I should not have allowed him to play the Game when he is so young," Pharoah said. "I probably should not have taken his..." 

"Potiphera was not the problem, Zaphnath," Yami snapped. "What kind of... _mockery_... was that supposed be? It surely wasn't the Game." 

Zaphnath looked stunned for a moment. 

"The Game was always a risk, Yami," Zaphnath reminded him hesitantly. "We knew that from the start..." 

"The Game was a risk to the _ personal_ welfare of the magician," Yami retorted, his anger spilling out. "It was a test of his skill and strength. It was a risk we were willing to take. The dark ones seem to have forgotten, however, that the Game was never supposed to allow a magician to put his _ opponent_ at risk. Never! 

"We had agreed not to conjure monsters, Zaphnath! To summon only, remember? Conjuring was too dangerous-the monster too powerful and too free to do what it wanted once conjured, too difficult to control. We agreed on this! What happened in there only proves that we were right! That was only a small Soul-Sucker! It wasn't even completely conjured when I stopped it! And it left me like this!"-Yami held up his hands before Zaphnath's face so he could see how much they were shaking-"I tell you, if they succeed and complete the spell the next time, I don't know if I could stop it." Yami dropped his voice to a whisper, finishing almost to himself. "It was almost too much for me." 

There was a pause, in which Zaphnath's aged face slowly began to register alarm as Yami's words sank in. "But," Zaphnath said haltingly, "but you are the strongest, Yami. If you cannot stop it..." 

"I cannot do this alone. I have no power to control their Hearts," Yami bit off every word, his voice a sharp hiss. "I have said this before: I need to conjure a Helper." 

Zaphnath looked dubious. "Giving a Shadow Realm spirit that kind of power would be"-he stopped, shaking his head-"taking a great risk, Yami." 

"I told you, Zaphnath," Yami said, "only a Shadow Realm spirit could have control over the Hearts. There is no other way. If we do not want the dark magic-users to continue to draw on this kind of power with thought for neither our safety nor their own..." 

Zaphnath held up a hand, silencing Yami's fury-soaked words. He gazed into the young magician's face, suddenly looking even older than he was, if that were possible. Pharoah's hair was already white and thin, and his face was as creased and cracked as the sandy ground in the desert to the south of them. Yami felt a twinge of pity for the man. He didn't need this kind of trouble at the end of his rule... 

"Let me do this, Zaphnath," Yami urged desperately, "I _ know_ I can." 

Zaphnath sighed and turned away from Yami-but before he broke his gaze, Yami saw the almost imperceptible nod. Yami watched him progress slowly down the hall, his steps far slower than he had ever seen him move, as though he was under some incredible weight. 

"You will not regret this, Zaphnath," Yami whispered to himself. 

* * *

_Too many wrenches thrown in the Yu-Gi-Oh! works? I hope not... :)_

_There is more to come, which will be posted as soon as I fix this $#@#$%$^ HTML code..._


	3. Part II cont'd Magic Ties

_Well, here is the next bit of story I had time to edit..._

_My thanks to joey and RavensHaelo for their reviews - they are very encouraging, and I hope you continue to enjoy the story._

_Things get a *little* bit mushy in this part (it  is a romance) - I tried to keep the mush levels to a minimum... :)_

Part II (cont'd) - Magic Ties

Yami was in his chambers, sitting in a small circle of golden candlelight that was enveloped in darkness. Silence blanketed the close, warm air as he assembled his spell, thinking, arranging... 

He laid out his components with the same precision and accuracy he had used when dueling in the Game. Everything in his Spell Circle was precisely in place. He had no margin for error; this was difficult magic, dangerous and demanding on his power. A mistake could mean much worse than his death. But - his eyes narrowed - he would do this, for Zaphnath, for the Game. It was too important. They had worked too hard for this kind of magic to have it all destroyed by power-hungry, controlling wizards. This was his life, and he would not have it stolen away... 

_ All right_, he thought, _ almost ready_. But this was no ordinary conjuration. He needed something more, something to bind, something permanent... 

His eyes traveled around the room, over items glinting on shelves, on tables. What to use...? 

His eyes fell on his own hands. His ring, his silver magician's ring caught the light of the candles glowing feebly on the table. But it was not silver. It was gold - very rare gold. White gold... 

He placed his other hand on his ring. Slowly, he pulled it off his finger and stared at it. 

_ Gold: untarnishable. A circle: unbroken. Rare..._

This was it. The binding item he needed. 

Yami braced himself, knowing this would complete the spell. He knew this spell, but he had never performed it before. He did not know how much magic he would need to use - how much it would draw from him. His own strength, the Game had taught him, would be directly proportional to the strength of the spirit he called. Also, this spell would decide the type of spirit, but he did not know what the Shadow Realm would send; drawing a good spirit was not a matter of control as much as one of faith. But - he stiffened - his strength would have to be enough. It would _ have_ to be... 

_ For you, Zaphnath. For the Game..._

He took a deep breath. 

"The ring," Yami murmured softly, "unbroken and unending, to bind; the eternal purity of gold. With this, I call you to me, me to you, in trust." 

He placed the ring in the centre of the circle... 

He felt the energy surge within the circle, felt it draw on his own power. And immediately felt it draining him. 

_ No! I... will not weaken..._

He clenched his fists on every ounce of his strength, drew himself up in the power he had mastered over all of his years of study and practice. But it was so hard. And the spell had just begun... 

_ "Wekha Wenen!"_

The power increased again. Yami felt his legs shake, and he forced them to stop. He directed his magic, brought the spell under his control... 

Now he focused his mind, concentrated every fibre of his being on what he had asked for... 

_ ...a good spirit... good, yet strong... wielder of justice..._

Inside his circle, Yami saw the glow, and he watched his spell take form... 

Silver... like the ring... White gold... 

Through glazed eyes, he saw the spirit's hair fly out in a silver cascade. The magic wind blowing lifted it, and flung it out and around the face that was as white and bright as the full moon... 

Tall, slender - yet powerful, exuding a command that was unmistakeable, irrefutable... 

_ ... the Power to Rule the Hearts..._

Hands trembling, sweat streaming into his burning eyes, he saw elegant robes, white and silver, billowing out around her form... 

_ Her_ form. A female form... 

The magic wind slowed and stilled. The form in the circle was complete. Finally, the spell was over. Yami fell to his knees, then to his hands, shaking, hearing nothing but his own heart pounding. It seemed like he stayed there for a long time, inhaling and exhaling spasmodically. He was weak, so weak, but... he had done it... 

He raised his eyes, just to see... just... for a moment... 

He had one glimpse - his breath caught. 

The spirit's form was sharp, clear and bright, but insubstantial - like a moonlit fog, glowing and swirling as twinkling star-lights flew around her. The silver hair hung suspended in the air as though she was floating in water. Her head was crowned with a delicate circlet, and it was bowed, the eyes closed. As he watched, they opened... 

Perhaps he shouldn't have looked at her. Not in his weakened state. 

_ I am the Queen of Hearts, Yami. I will bring order._

Her voice penetrated his thoughts, and it was music - unearthly music. His arms gave out and he fell. He dreamed only of silver hair falling over a timeless beauty, and silver-green eyes that smiled into his own... 

* * * 

_ It worked well, at first. According to her word, she brought order to the Game. The dark ones could no longer conjure their beasts with her there. She would appear, harness the spell and give the magician who played fairly the advantage - give him the power he needed to summon the beast to win. She would weaken the powers of evil by her light alone, and they would be confounded, confused, unable to draw their power. At first, they could not see her - only the monsters and myself could. Then, sometimes, those of us who fought for good would glimpse her. It gave them hope and strength; she was all I could have wanted. _

_ But then the dark ones began to suspect my work. They knew something had happened and they began to investigate. The dark forces were not to be held in check forever by my plans. But I had expected this - would have been a fool not to. They were angry, and they began to whisper and make plans of their own. I saw them coming. I knew there was danger for the Queen because at the sunset of every evening of the New Moon, she became mortal, and could therefore be destroyed. They had looked into my spell, and discovered this. _

_ All they had to do now was wait. Wait for every New Moon. So we waited, too. But there was more - one more weakness I hadn't counted on... _

_ My own spell had bound her to me and me to her with an unbreakable bond. What she was and what I was became entwined, and we were caught in an unbearably powerful union - one that was made more painful because I was human and she was spirit: a boundary we could never transcend. And the times she crossed into the physical realm became more and more difficult to bear. _

_ I thought we were prepared. But how could I have prepared myself for what she had done to me...? _

* * * 

"They know, Cora." 

Yami's words hung like the heady smells of earth and vegetation that radiated with the heat upwards from the land into the cooling evening air. Cora had become solid, and Yami sat with her among the tall grasses of the Nile River plain. The sunset bled across the western sky, spreading its colour through Cora's iridescent hair and over her alabaster cheeks. Even her eyelashes were tinged with red. Yami never ceased to marvel at Cora's beauty, never ceased to marvel at the life that seemed to bubble from her like a wellspring so that just being near her infected him with it; made him feel as ageless and timeless as she was. Sitting with her there, he wished that he _ was_ ageless and timeless - that he could just stay here in this twilight world with Cora, watching the sun run its colour into her hair. Stay here and not have to return to what they were... 

The thought scared him and brought him rudely back to reality. Reality was they could _ not_ stay here. Reality was they _ had_ to go back. And it was becoming harder and harder to do it. 

"I know that. We have long expected this, Yami. Are you surprised?" 

There was a hint of amusement to Cora's answer, but Yami could not return even her tiny smile. He forced his eyes away from her beautiful face. 

"Cora... I..." he stopped, fighting inwardly against the tide of emotion that rose up so powerfully inside him every time he was near her, especially these times when she was so real to him. Cora's smile faded, and Yami knew she anticipated what was coming. He tried to continue. "I... used to know... why I fought them... why I summoned you. It was the Game. Always for the Game - the magic. But now..." - Yami paused - "now, my love for... the Game is divided. I feel split - I don't know my reasons, anymore. It's so different. Cora, I don't know... if I can..." 

He fell silent as he became aware of her moving closer. She stopped in front of him, her face very close to his own, and he was suddenly very conscious of his own heart beat, which seemed loud. 

"It is because of your love for me," Cora said softly, "that _ I_ know you can. It gives you strength. Just as my love for you gives me strength." 

"Sometimes," Yami whispered, finally voicing a tiny piece of what was in his heart, "I wish there was no Game. That it was only us..." 

Cora smiled - a sad smile that mirrored the sadness in Yami's own soul. "If there were no Game, Yami, there would be no us." Cora grew serious, and looked meaningfully at Yami. "You still love the Game, Yami. I can see it in you when we fight. And the Game gives us time - time together." 

She always knew his thoughts and seemed to read his mind before he even voiced them. He looked into eyes the colour of frosted jade. He wondered had he known the agonizing bond they would share, would he have conjured her? Without thinking, he touched the moon-shaped face. It was always excruciatingly beautiful, her touch: at once like the kiss of a spring wind and ibis feathers. 

For him, yes. He would have died a thousand deaths for her. But, for her...? 

"And I will always fight with you, for you," she said, again answering his thoughts as she reached her hand up to cup his own, "as I have sworn to always do. I will stay with you, Yami. Forever." 

* * * 

_ The New Moons came and went. The Game went on, and the dark ones still could not find a way to overcome the power of the Queen. The atmosphere became tense, and I sensed danger like a storm on the horizon. I suppose it was my own folly, my own weakness around her, but I became proud, careless. I should have guessed, with their numbers, that they would conjure more than one beast eventually. But when they did, I realized exactly how dangerous this had become..._

* * *

_Did you survive? Too mushy? _

_Don't despair - there's more action in the next part...!_


	4. Part II cont'd The Decision

_Here is what is to be, I believe, the second-to-last installment of this short story. _

_YamiMommy - my thanks for your review_

_RavensHaelo - you have been faithful - I hope I will not disappoint... ;)_

Part II (cont'd) - The Decision

Yami stepped lightly and nervously through the rapidly darkening streets of the city. Worry had begun its serpentine wrap around his stomach, as it always did at this time every moon-cycle. _ Where_ would she be this time? And _ why_ did his Sight seem so dull? He should have at least sensed her by now. It was as if Cora was... blocked from him somehow. All he could sense was... cold... 

"Halt! Show yourself!" 

The shout from the sentry at the city gate caused only a momentary falter of Yami's progress. Maintaining his momentum, he continued towards the sentry and the shadows withdrew from his face as he approached the torch-lit gate. The sentry's eyes widened, and he dropped immediately to one knee. 

"High Magician. Forgive me. I did not see that it was you." 

Yami swept by him, not responding, and he exited the city gates, which creaked and clunked shut behind him. His steps came more rapidly as he neared the wilderness that fringed the Nile plain, his apprehension mounting with the pace of his heart. Something was not right. Why couldn't he sense her? 

As the torchlights of the city walls grew dimmer with distance, Yami broke into a run. He crashed into the thickening vegetation, pushing it out of his way, and the acrid smells of rot and fungus flew into his face. He coughed and advanced further, his feet now squelching on the spongy ground, and at a sudden bend in the River, he found himself in a man-made clearing on the bush-lined shore where a large copse of trees had been felled. He stopped running abruptly at a sense of danger and his head tilted upward to the sky. The pale white stars stared back at him like so many million eyes. As his eyes traveled across the small patch of night visible through the hole in the treetops, a movement drew his gaze. 

There was something billowing, towering over the trees at the other end of the clearing. Something that blacked out the blue-black sky behind it, something that blotted out the stars. Something that was stifling - physically and spiritually glacial... 

"No," he breathed, "a Soul-Sucker..." 

What in _ hell_ was a Soul-Sucker doing here? 

He could see no Spell Circle, no magic-users. A Soul-Sucker-roaming about this close to the city... Yami could not even begin to comprehend the danger... 

Instinctively, Yami began weaving a spell to protect himself. But the Soul-Sucker had already sensed him, had probably come here for him. Hungrily, the shadow monster lunged at Yami, drawing something from within itself and flinging it at him. That something sliced through the air in front of him. He felt it - pressure, coldness, pure darkness... 

_ ...No! I'm not finished...! _

He dropped, rolling, on the ground, his spell uncompleted. The something blew over him like a frost wind, and his arm, still extended, passed through it. He screamed as a thousand white-hot knives seared through him. Somehow, he completed his roll. Hunched over the pain, he stood and faced the creature. 

_ No time... no... time...!_

He tried to summon the power to attack, tried to draw his hands together, but his arm... his arm would not move... 

_ Oh, god... Cora... where are you...?_

Furious, Yami dragged his mind away from Cora and back to the Soul-Sucker. The darkness was there again - flying at him like a swarm of locusts. Again, he dropped, rolling... 

Missed... 

_Damn_, he cursed in helpless fury at his arm, _ damn you - WORK!!_

Sheer willpower caused his arm to move. He couldn't feel it, but it was moving. He made a gesture, tried to summon the spell he needed - and he felt the energy drain from him alarmingly fast. 

_No_, he thought, _ the wound..._

His shadow injury was causing his magic to draw ten times the amount of power it usually did. Cursing, furious, helpless, he could only watch as the life-sucking monster fixed its faceless face on him and gathered itself for another strike... 

Then he thought of Cora... 

_ Cora has to be here_, he thought frantically, _ or the Soul-Sucker wouldn't be._ This _ thing_ would go after her next... 

He had to stop it. He would... _NOT_... be... helpless! 

_ No, Cora... for you... I will fight... for you..._

Defiantly, he drew his hands together - one still unfeeling and numb - as the creature's attack became a black, pounding force before it. He _ had_ to create a defence for himself or he would never be able to gather himself for an attack. 

_ "Seta Mesneh!"_

It was a simple spell - a Game spell. He prayed it would be enough. Just to buy some time... 

The spell didn't withstand the attack. He didn't expect it to. The glass-like wall that shot up in front of him shattered under its force, unable to even perform its function of repelling the attack back at the creature. But the Sucker's attack never reached Yami, and that was all he needed. Ignoring the pains that shot from his arm through his chest, pushing himself beyond the weakness that was turning the rest of his limbs to cotton, he drew his hands together, focusing, summoning... 

_ "Hesek!"_

The power flew from his hands and struck the heart of the Soul-Sucker. It felt like it took his own life force with it. He resisted the wave of nausea that accompanied the debilitating weakness, hung on until he heard the voiceless scream and knew the creature had been banished back into the netherworld ... 

He felt the ground hit his knees, and he knew his legs had collapsed. He sat, clutching his arm, which was now beginning to crawl with hundreds of needle-sharp pricks. The Sucker was gone, but where was Cora...? 

The thought of her name set off a reaction inside him, as if something was turning on, tuning in. His Sight was setting warnings off - the warnings he hadn't heard before... 

_ Of course she wasn't here..._

_ ...she was somewhere else..._

They had sent a decoy... 

* * * 

Yami fought his way through the dense vegetation towards the Nile, his stomach churning with worry and his mind still reeling over what the dark ones had done. They had sent a Soul-Sucker as a decoy - just turned it loose to do what it would. He had never fathomed that even the dark ones would have become so reckless... 

And they had targeted him for a spell as well-they had somehow used the Soul-Sucker to shield Cora from his senses. He should have _ known_ they would try this! He should have been watching them... 

Furious with himself and sick over what could have happened to the city, and what might be happening to Cora, he ran through the bushes and leaves that slapped and scratched him and the sharp saw grasses that slashed and cut his arms and legs. Shaking with weakness and frustration, crouched over his arm, he stumbled and ran, and stumbled again. _ Damn... damn... damn... I know she's here... I can sense her... but... where... damn... Cora, WHERE ARE YOU... DAMN IT...! _

_ STOP THIS!!_

He stopped running so abruptly that he almost fell over; he stood still, one branch brushing up and down against his cheek. Harnessing the near hysteria that was flooding his mind, he forced himself to calm, to listen to the power, to the energy that told him everything, that also connected him to Cora... 

Eyes closed, he listened... felt the forest around him breathing with its own life, felt the magic in it, felt Cora... 

...felt something else - something horribly familiar... 

Electrified into action, Yami was running again, his heart trying frantically to hammer its way out of his chest. The trees and bushes ended abruptly by the wide plain of the Nile River, and Yami burst out onto the level, grassy ground. In the distance, the water rippled softly at the edge of the plain, dark as blood under the inky black sky. 

The deep, sucking cold suddenly struck him full in the face, shooting another volley of frost arrows through his arm. Stifling a cry, he looked wildly around and found the source of the soul-numbing cold. 

The Spell Circle was drawn a little ways from him. Already, he could see the ugly black cloud forming in the centre of it - could see it growing, solidifying. There were two magicians around the circle: one, he didn't recognize; the other - 

_"Samekh!!"_

Yami's voice burst out of him before he could stop it. Samekh turned around, and Yami saw him falter. The image in the circle flickered, and then Yami's gaze caught the shimmer of silver on the ground below it. 

_ Oh, no..._

_ ...Cora..._

"Yami," Samekh's unsteady, but menacing voice shook its way to Yami, "I must admit, I'm surprised. Did you like my gift?" He made a ghost of a gesture towards his own Spell Circle. "I have one for each of you." 

Yami looked desperately at Cora. She was standing, hand outstretched towards the conjuration that was writhing, twisting and growing before her. Yami's appearance had caused Samekh and his accomplice enough distraction to halt their spell, and the creature was suffering for it, trapped and stretched between worlds. Yami could feel its anger, and - fear iced his stomach - it would direct it towards Cora. Cora was mortal now. She was a powerful magic-user, but what could she do against an angry Soul-Sucker...? And it seemed that Samekh did not mind letting the creature suffer and build its anger. He remained still, smiling a very unpleasant smile at Yami, while the other magician - obviously the weaker - trembled slightly as he tried to maintain control of the spell. 

Yami forgot about his weakness and his injury as he tried to control the rage that was suddenly pounding in his head with enough force to make it difficult to see. Carelessly, he drew on his power again, almost not feeling the numbness and the pain that was increasing with every fraction of a second of exposure to the Soul-Sucker. Everything, everything he had within himself, he directed at the creature... 

_ "Hesek!"_

...but his power, which would normally have shot in rope-like forks of light with enough force to banish the creature back to the Shadow Realm, flickered and Yami's heart sank as he saw the failure of his own spell. And when it did reach the Spell Circle, Yami cried out as his power only struck the edge of the circle... and disappeared. Samekh's high-pitched laugh crackled from the Spell-Circle. 

"You're slipping, Yami!" Yami barely heard Samekh's sneering drawl as he fell again to his knees, quivering with weakness and pain. "Do you think I would have your little spirit helper here in the Circle if I hadn't Enclosed it?" 

Yami clenched his fists in fury - more at himself than at Samekh. Of course he had walled in his Spell Circle. That's why Cora was not moving from within its boundaries. Enraged, Yami could have kicked himself for not seeing it sooner. And he would have seen it, he reproved himself, if he had not been so blinded by fear for Cora's safety... 

"Yes, she was relatively easy to catch," Samekh was rambling on, "once you know what to look for." 

Yami looked wildly at the other magician. He didn't know how much power he could muster... 

"...really, Yami, you must be feeling a little off," Samekh crooned sarcastically. "You're being very careless - but I counted on your stupidity to work in my favour..." 

Yami forced his mind to shut everything out but his spell. Cora's shadow powers would be weakened by the Enclosure spell. She was focusing all of her power on the creature confined in the Circle with her, and he didn't know how much longer she could do it... 

"...you just didn't realize what you were getting yourself into when you decided to control the Game. You're playing with things far bigger than you..." 

_ One spell. Just one spell. Such a small spell._ So much pain and weakness. But... the Game... 

...Cora... 

He was disturbed - but not surprised - that it was the thought of Cora that provoked the most powerful reaction. 

"...so maybe you just didn't think things through, Yami. But here's where you pay - " 

_ "Wesef!"_

Exquisite pain sliced through the centre of Yami's forehead and the power resonating from his outstretched hands was threatening to tear his arms from their sockets, but the spell reached the other magician. In an instant, he went rigid and fell motionless to the ground. 

Samekh wheeled around, his tirade ending in a cat-like hiss. Yami used what strength he had to remain standing as every breath he took set fire to his throat and lungs and every muscle in his body quivered with fatigue. The monster inside the Spell Circle flickered again, and on some plane Yami knew it was screaming. Samekh ran to the Circle, trying to take up the spell from where he had left off, trying to complete the conjuration. 

"Cora!" Yami tried to shout, but all that came out was a hoarse whisper - one that Cora only could hear. "Cora - " 

_ I cannot break out of an Enclosed Spell Circle..._

Cora's voice slid through his mind, and he closed his eyes. _ No..._

_ Work with me, Yami..._

Yami's eyes opened again. _ What?_

_ Break down the wall..._

_ Oh, Cora_, Yami thought, _ I've tried..._

_ No, you haven't._

His eyes shot up to Cora. No, he hadn't. He had tried to banish the creature within it, but he hadn't attacked the walls... 

_But_, Yami thought desperately, _ my strength..._

_ I will strengthen you..._

He felt it. 

Somehow, Cora was using their bond - his connection to her - to transmit her strength to him. He felt it like a silver flood vibrating through his heart, streaming out to every limb, felt her life in him... 

_ But that must mean_, Yami thought with a stab of fear, _ that Cora is being drained. With the Soul-Sucker..._

_ Break down the wall, Yami..._

Her voice sounded so much weaker... 

"You're forgetting that my powers aren't as weak as yours, Yami!" 

Yami heard Samekh's gleeful crow over the suddenly horrific sounds coming from within the Spell Circle. Samekh had completed the conjuration. 

Yami sprang to his feet in the strength Cora had given to him. The wall. He had to break the wall...but how? 

Instinctively, mind suddenly crystal clear, he knew: a summon. A temporary helper - a helper that would use _ its_ power to destroy the wall. It would use a small amount of his magic, and he would be able to conserve it for the Soul-Sucker. 

His eyes flew to the Spell Circle. The faceless vacuum of blackness loomed ominously over what was now a crumpled heap of silver shimmer - Cora. Yami felt its hate and wrath, saw it look first at Samekh and then, as though realizing it was Enclosed, begin to turn its attention towards Cora... 

For the first time, Yami felt no fear. In this fresh strength, he could feel the confidence he always felt when he was working his magic soaring through him, giving him wings, for this was who he was; this was what he was. And this was the Game. 

_ "A'nen Siege Dragon!"_

The air in front of him thrummed, then split to reveal a monstrous lizard-like beast with iridescent purple scales, and a row of spikes down its long neck and back. It towered over Yami, waiting expectantly for his command. To the beast, Yami cried, pointing to the Enclosed Spell Circle: 

_ "Destroy the wall!"_

The beast faced the Circle with blazing yellow eyes. Rearing its gigantic head back, its cavernous mouth opened and it spat a flaming ball at the Circle. There was a sound like glass exploding... and the wall was gone. The Enclosure Spell was destroyed. 

Samekh cried out, but the sound was lost in the screech from the now-open Spell Circle. Seeing its freedom, the Soul-Sucker rounded on the Siege Dragon. It drew something from inside itself - something black and cold - and Yami felt a shiver in his arm. It flung the black coldness at Yami's summoned monster. With a terrible shriek, the monster disintegrated. 

The Soul-Sucker then slowly turned, not to Cora, but towards... _ Samekh_. 

Samekh - weakened from the effort of conjuring the beast - fell to his knees, cursing Yami with every oath he knew with what breath he had left. Yami would have loved to let the beast take Samekh - suck whatever soul Samekh had into its vacuum. But he knew it wouldn't stop there - and a soul would only make the beast stronger. Focusing, gathering his power before it was too late, Yami took what strength Cora had given him and flung all of it at the angry Soul-Sucker. 

_ "Hesek!"_

Spidery webs of lightning shot far out from Yami's hands. He felt his power, Cora's power, pulsing through it, felt it as it struck the beast fully, felt it first draw his power then overload on it. The beast was screaming again - and it was gone. 

Yami's arms dropped, hands on his knees. Relief washed over him... it was gone... 

A bloodthirsty scream shook Yami out of his moment's pause. Samekh had hauled himself to his feet in a frenzy, trying to cast any spell power he had at Yami. But it was Cora that stopped the onslaught. She had raised herself on one arm, and pointing her finger at Samekh, cried _ "Shem en hewet!"_ With the one motion, both Samekh and the magician paralysed by Yami's spell evaporated in a cloud of white mist. 

Both Yami and Cora collapsed. The two of them remained motionless for a long moment, Yami on his knees and Cora on her back in the abandoned Spell Circle. The only sound was their breathing in the silent night air. Even the waters of the Nile were silent. 

"I only sent them home," Cora whispered finally. "It was the last strength I had..." 

Yami didn't answer. 

"Yami..." 

_ "FOOL!"_

The word exploded out of Yami in pent-up anguish and anger. Cora looked sharply at him - she realized he was not berating her, but himself. 

"I couldn't see... couldn't see the most simple traps. I fell into everything. _Everything!_" Yami clenched his fists, and his words hissed out through gritted teeth. "I was so... so worried about you. All I could see... all I cared about..." Yami's tortured eyes flew to Cora. "I wasted... so much power! So many times... because of my own... _ FOOLISHNESS!_ Cora - I can't... I... can't..." 

Yami's eyes slammed shut, tears burning paths down his cheeks. There was silence again. Somewhere, an eerie cry echoed to them on the breeze. Then... 

Cora had said something, and he didn't think he had heard her properly. 

"What?" 

It came again. Her voice was soft, but deathly firm. 

"Bind the Game, Yami." 

He _ had_ heard her. He slowly brought his eyes around to focus on Cora, his brain hurting as it tried to bend around what she was saying. He could not believe what she had asked him to do. 

"No," he said tightly. 

"Why?" 

He looked incredulous. _ How could you say that?_ "Because... because we've worked too hard, for so long... We have attained so much..." 

"They have attained more. They have succumbed to the poison power always gives to the sons of men..." 

"We only have to maintain control..." 

"It's _ out_ of control!" Cora snapped, cutting him off. "We have failed. They know my weakness, Yami! They are conjuring Soul-Suckers quite competently now - but they have no understanding of the danger. A Soul-Sucker is not a Game spirit, Yami. It has neither respect for humanity, nor regard for life. All it does is consume souls. And every soul it consumes only increases its hunger for more. Do you realize what this could do to your race? They conjured two this time. What if they conjure three the next? They keep growing stronger. If we don't bind the Game - bind them - and they defeat us..." 

"They have to have _ some_ weakness..." 

"They do!" Cora was shouting now. "Bind the Game, Yami! They can be bound. That is their weakness." 

Silence-thick with tension... and terrible finality. Yami sat motionless, for the moment oblivious even to Cora as her words sank into him. His eyes seemed to be fixed on something far away. 

"If I bind the Game, I have to bind _ all_ the Game," he finally said quietly. "Everything that has to do with it." 

Cora's voice was barely a whisper. "I know." 

Yami abruptly turned on Cora, his eyes blazing with torment. 

"Damn it, Cora, I will have to bind _ you_ as well! I will have to bind you and banish you to the Shadow Realm!" 

"I know what it means, Yami!" 

He turned away, tears of frustration and anger glittering in his dark eyes. He slammed his fist into the ground, welcoming the pain that shot up his arm to his heart. Cora said nothing, unmoving, her silver-green gaze resting on him with alarming gentleness. Yami closed his eyes, and the tears were forced out of them. 

"I will bind myself, as well," Yami said finally. 

Cora's firm tenacity seemed to falter at Yami's statement, and she shivered as though she had suddenly become very cold. 

"No, Yami..." 

"If someone should ever find the binding items," he stormed over her words, "it could be released. Someone has to be able to bind the power again!" 

"_I_ will be there." 

Yami took her shoulders, forcing her to look into his eyes. 

"And I will be with you. Always. Remember?" 

Tears filled her eyes now, and one escaped, falling onto Yami's arm. 

"I have always been a Shadow Realm spirit, Yami. You gave me what I have now. If you bind yourself, you will be neither Shadow Realm spirit, nor will you be human" - she paused, then continued, her voice shaking - "What will you be?" 

The smile on his face was mirthless, but undeniable love filled the dark eyes that rested on Cora. 

"I will be with you," he answered. 

* * * 


	5. Part II cont'd Darkness Dawn

_Well, TTT for the last time - here is the conclusion of The Queen of Hearts_

_My thanks again to all who reviewed the story - I hope it was as enjoyable to read as it was to write_

Part II (cont'd) - Darkness; Dawn

The next new moon sky was starless and moonless as black clouds scurried across it like so many angry shades. The night wind breathed around Yami and Cora as they made hurried progress through darkened streets and alleys, both of them cloaked in black and hooded. Before them, the Hall of Magic loomed in shadow, its dull orange windows staring at their progress. 

They reached the sandy brown building and ducked into the shadows of the alley beside it. They pressed against the wall, the stone cool against their hands. Wordless understanding passed between the two sets of eyes that looked at each other before quickly ducking into the door. 

_ "The Game Magic is not written down. It is passed word of mouth from magic-user to magic-user,"_ Yami had told Cora earlier. _ "To bind the Game, I must bind the magic-users. Their magic will be bound with them."_

_ "They will gather again tonight,"_ Cora had replied. _ "They will all be together, and they will already have drawn a circle for their magic."_

_ "So,"_ Yami had smiled darkly, _ "all we have to do is walk in and use the tools they have so kindly set up for us."_

The hallway was silent except for the quiet crackle of the wall torches that illuminated their path. Stopping in front of a small room, Yami turned to Cora. 

"We need items," he said. "Five of them. Make sure they are gold." 

Cora and Yami went inside the room where several gold items gleamed on various shelves and tables. From a table where seven items stood separate from the others, Cora took five of them, and brought them to Yami. 

"These items are magic," she said softly. 

Yami frowned. He could sense it, too. Closing his eyes, Yami moved a hand over the items Cora held, and murmured: _"Negi."_

Behind his closed eyes, images and impressions began to infiltrate the edges of Yami's mind like a halo of white light. He began to see the magic in the items as it revealed itself to him in response to his spell. 

"It... it's Game magic," he said softly, half to himself. "It gives them the power... to turn the game in their favour" - his frown deepened - "the items allow them... to see things. To control..." 

Yami gasped, pulling his hand away as though it was being burnt. Cora sharply met his eyes as they flew open. The alarm she sensed from him was enough to confirm her worst fears about the Game. 

"They can control their opponent, Cora," Yami said, shaken, his eyes never leaving hers. "and more. They can... trap souls..." 

Yami stopped. Cora's eyes widened, then narrowed. "They have been busy," she concluded stiffly. 

For a long moment, they just shared stricken gazes, their eyes saying more than an entire book of conversation. 

"Well, then," Yami finally broke the silence. His voice had taken on a frightening coldness. "Appropriate that we should imprison them in their own treachery." 

Cora hesitated. "Any power these items have will become part of the dark ones once they are bound," she said carefully. 

"It doesn't matter," Yami answered gravely. "What is bound is bound. All the power will be bound - their's and the items' - together." 

"It would make them more powerful," Cora persisted, "should their forces be resurrected." 

Yami looked evenly at Cora. "Then I, too, will be more powerful." 

Cora stared back at him. Grimly, she nodded. 

Quickly, quietly Yami and Cora gathered the items and exited the room. They followed the hallway to the massive doors at the end, which - as they had expected - were locked. Cora, with a glance at Yami, placed her hands against the door. 

_ "Sen,"_ she said softly. 

The doors swung open. With another glance at each other, the two of them entered the room. 

The musky smells of candle wax and spices assaulted their nostrils in the warm, close air of the inner chamber. They stood still a moment before moving further into the room, letting their eyes accustom themselves to the semi-darkness. Then they looked up. 

As Cora had said, the dark ones were there. Four of them, among them Samekh and his accomplice, stood around a Spell Circle which had been permanently inscribed on the surface of the floor. They were murmuring softly among themselves and it didn't look like they had begun any spell yet. They were preparing, Yami thought. Preparing to work the same magic that had nearly killed both himself and Cora at the last New Moon. Preparing to work the same magic that threatened all of them because of their own careless lust for power. The same dark magic that had driven he and Cora here tonight to bind the Game that had been his life now for nearly ten years. An angry spark ignited inside of Yami, flickering through him like a firefly. 

"I'm sorry," he said loudly, "are we intruding?" 

Apparently, they were. The four magicians jumped and whirled around. The two hooded figures that were Yami and Cora loomed like spectres out of the shadows around the dimly lit circle. Samekh regained a marginal composure, and his face curled into an ugly sneer. 

"Yami," he said in a low growl, "you and your little witch girl are beginning to be a very large annoyance." 

"By the time we are finished we will be much more than that," Yami answered with equal vehemence. 

"Well, Yami, I would like to continue this pleasant conversation, but I'm afraid we're a bit pressed for time," Samekh announced, "and, in fact, your presence here works in quite well with our plans..." 

"As your presence here works with mine," Yami broke in, gesturing towards Cora. Stepping forward, Cora flung her hand towards the circle where the four magicians stood. At the same instant, Samekh threw himself down, rolling away from the circle. 

_ "Sheni!"_

The three remaining magicians around the Circle had blanched, panicked looks on their faces. They began to push against the air, standing at odd angles, as though somehow suspended. They looked like they were pushing against an invisible wall. Seeing Samekh's mad rush to the passageway, Cora swung out her other hand towards the door, crying: _ "Ihem!" _- and the door slammed shut, trapping Samekh in the room. 

Samekh however sprang to his feet, and swung around to face Yami, who was advancing towards him with deliberate menace. 

"Trying to leave, Samekh? Why, I wouldn't hear of it. The party's just beginning..." 

Samekh lashed out, drawing his hands together, calling his magic. 

_ "A'nen, Swordstalker!"_ he cried. 

The air in front of Samekh exploded into a towering black, bat-winged devil swinging a massive blade. Yami stopped moving forward, narrowing his dark eyes at Samekh. 

"Do you really want to play gaming spells with _me_, Samekh?" Yami asked softly. 

"Who's playing, Yami?" Samekh replied, just as softly. "And who said anything about _you_?" 

In the split-second of time it took Yami to comprehend what Samekh was suggesting, Samekh had yelled: "Attack!", and pointed his shadow-beast at Cora. 

"You forget, Yami," Samekh shouted over the rush of his monster, "the reason we are here is to get rid of that little shadow-wench of yours. Getting rid of you as a result is just an added... _ What?!"_

Cora had stood as resolute as a statue in the face of the charging beast. But as the Swordstalker approached her, it slowed its steps, then halted dead in its tracks. Samekh gaped at Cora as the Swordstalker evaporated into the air. 

_ "What did you do?"_ Samekh hissed. 

Cora's baleful stare fell coldly on Samekh in silence. 

"What did you do?" Samekh repeated frantically. "You can't have power here! You are weak, now! We studied this. You... can't do that!" 

"I see your insight has failed you again, Samekh," Yami broke in. "Cora may be mortal, but she is definitely not weak. And no monster summoned from her realm would dare attack her, save one. You know the one. It must be conjured, for it will not be summoned." 

"But... but we are not playing the Game," Samekh shrieked. "She only has power over the Game..." 

"That's where you're wrong, Samekh," Cora's voice answered this time. "Anytime you call upon the Shadow Realm for aid you are playing the Game. And over this Game I am still sovereign." 

"So, that leaves you with... no monsters, Samekh," Yami said with exaggerated innocence. "Still want to play?" 

"I may not have monsters, but I still have magic. _Seki!_" 

He flung his hands out at Cora as the fatal spell streamed out from them in a crackle of yellow light - that was deflected by a towering, dark-cloaked mage that rose in front of Cora like a monolith, holding a staff and watching Samekh, unblinking and grave, with the same frost-jade eyes as Cora. 

"Who is _that?_" Samekh exclaimed. 

Cora said nothing, and the dark shadow-mage crouched on the ground in front of her, guarding, defending. Yami remained motionless and expressionless, knowing and trusting Cora's power against Samekh's pitiful, desperate assaults. But his eyes continually watched the dark-cloaked shadow-mage that had risen, unbidden, to Cora's defence. He wondered at how much the magician resembled Cora, from the delicately sharp facial features, to the frosty jade-green eyes. 

"You... you shadow... witch," Samekh murmured furiously. "They defend you. Without you even having to call them..." 

Yami smiled with the quiet confidence that Samekh had always found so unnerving. 

"I believe you are beginning to appreciate Cora's power," Yami said. Samekh's eyes suddenly narrowed, and his gaze flew deviously to Yami. 

"Appreciate this power, Yami," Samekh retorted. _ "Sefet Akh!"_

Suddenly a glowing, silver-green sword materialised and swung down, embedding itself in Yami's arm - the arm the Soul-Sucker had injured. 

Yami screamed as searing cold pain shot through him, bringing him to his knees. 

"Sore arm, Yami?" Samekh asked, then added with mock sympathy, "Shadow injuries never really heal, do they? I thought I saw you cradling that arm the last time I dealt with you two." 

Samekh made a gesture in the air, and the soul-sword twisted in Yami's arm, angling towards his chest. Involuntarily, he screamed again. 

"Yami!" Cora cried. 

"Call off your monster, witch," Samekh snarled, his black stare never leaving Yami. 

Cora looked desperately at Yami. Yami glared vehemently at Samekh. "Cora, no - AAAAAAUUUGH!" 

The sword twisted again, ending Yami's words with a scream. 

"Call him off, witch!" Samekh cried. "Call him off, or I swear to you I will pull his arm out of its socket while you watch." 

"Dark Magician," Cora said shakily, _ "Kheti."_

The mage looked at her, as though questioning her command. Cora nodded, and the Dark Magician reluctantly dissolved, with a final dangerous look at Samekh. 

"Now," Samekh went on, "release the Spell Circle." 

Cora didn't move. She looked first at the Spell Circle, then back at Yami, her eyes storming with conflict. Samekh gestured again ever so slightly, and though Yami tried he could not stop the sharp intake of breath from hissing through his clenched teeth. 

"Do it," Samekh said threateningly. 

Haltingly, Cora turned towards the Enclosed Spell Circle. The magicians within the Circle stood up and grouped together. Shadows leaping through the room because of the dying candles made the triumphant smirks on their faces look even more grotesque than they were. 

"It's always so much more difficult when you care about someone, isn't it?" Samekh taunted. "It always makes decisions so much harder when there's more at stake than just yourself. This must be so trying for a shadow spirit like you." 

"You know nothing about shadow spirits," Cora retorted savagely. 

Yami squeezed his eyes shut, trying to rally against the pain and the rage raining a red mist over his thoughts. _ This can't be over_, he thought furiously. _ It can't end. Not like this..._

_ You to me, me to you, Yami..._

Yami's eyes flew open at Cora's thought glittering through his clouded mind. 

A moment in time: Cora's and Yami's eyes connected across the semi-dark space between them. Yami saw Cora move her eyes fleetingly to the golden circlet she held. They then slid back across his gaze again on their way back to the Spell Circle in front of her. 

Samekh was watching Yami. Cora stopped before the Spell Circle, raising her hand towards it. The circlet fell to the floor. Samekh's gaze shifted from Yami to Cora. Then Cora swung her arm around and instead pointed at Yami, crying loudly: _ "Shebi!"_

There was a sharp cry as the soul-sword, which had been protruding from Yami's arm, suddenly materialized in Cora's arm. Cora clutched at it, recoiling two steps while Yami straightened. Cora's spell had switched Samekh's spell from Yami to Cora. Yami knew its effect was temporary. Ignoring the frosty needles now assaulting his own arm, he collected his power between his hands and flung it towards both Samekh and the circlet on the floor. 

_ "Sepeh Spi!"_

"No!" 

It was Samekh's last word. Then he went rigid as the power struck him full in the chest. Slowly, Yami pulled his hands together - and Samekh was pulled slowly towards the circle... 

Samekh screamed - loudly. Then his scream seemed to sound first stretched, pulled across time, then compressed and muffled. Samekh was pulled, pulled, pulled to the circle and his body and soul entwined around it, twisting and writhing - forced into a place it was never meant to be. Then, suddenly, he _ was_ the ring - a part of it... 

The spell ended. The ring clattered to the floor. 

Then Yami cried out again as the soul-sword reappeared in his arm, the jolt of it knocking him to the ground while Cora, the sword gone, remained motionless for a moment, letting the pain subside. Then she straightened, turned, and walked to Yami. 

She knelt down beside him, and gently - so gently - placed her hand on the sword. Yami knew that just being near the sword would be terribly painful for her; touching it would be excruciating to the fresh shadow wound in her arm. If the pain was there, though, she did not show it, did not flinch. She only spoke in a soft voice: _ "Mena"_, and the sword disappeared. 

Yami sat up, forcing his quivering muscles to relax. 

"Are you all right?" Cora asked. 

"Fine," Yami answered through clenched teeth. "Never better." 

One corner of Cora's mouth curved upwards slightly at this. Then, knowing Yami would not want her help, she stepped back and allowed him to lift himself from the floor. 

Yami turned and walked slowly to the Spell Circle. The remaining three magicians began to shout and plead, pounding and clawing noiselessly on the invisible wall. One of them, whom Yami recognized as Samekh's accomplice, flung a spell at it - and immediately fell to his knees. 

"Ramen, stop!" one of the others - a girl Yami recognized as Shu'ra, one whom he had studied with - yelled at him. Yami looked sharply at the young magician who had been Samekh's accomplice. His dark hair was dishevelled, falling across the brown eyes that were dark with loathing. 

"Ramen, is it? I'm disappointed in you," Yami's quiet voice resonated hollowly through the room. "Seems like you've been spending so much time conjuring Soul-Suckers you've forgotten your more basic spells." 

Ramen looked hatefully up at Yami. 

"Let me refresh your memory," Yami went on, more harshly. "The Enclosed Spell-Circle will absorb the power of anything trapped within it, quite effectively rendering your spell useless. More simply, Ramen" - Yami smiled - "you will find your spells don't work very well in there." 

"I swear to you, Yami," Ramen snarled, "I will make you regret this." 

"I doubt it, Ramen. Nothing you could do could make me regret this. _ Sepeh Spi!_" 

Cora flung another object into the air. The golden Eye of Ra was caught by Yami's spell and it hung suspended, like the now-rigid Ramen. As he had done with Samekh, Yami drew the two together. There was more screaming. Then the Eye clattered to the floor. 

"That's two," Yami murmured. 

From within the Enclosed Spell-Circle, the magician called Shu'ra peered her blue eyes through the tangle of black hair that had fallen unnoticed across her face in the confusion. She had been with the dark ones for some time now. She had been there when they had conjured their first Soul-Sucker from the Shadow Realm. She had seen and done many things that had frightened her, but never in all her days had she ever felt such terror as the moment Yami's night dark eyes fell upon her. 

Shu'ra looked pleadingly at Yami. "Yami, please," her voice was a quavering whisper. 

Yami's eyes were cold, unheeding. Shu'ra felt her stomach fill with rocks. Cora raised another item: a rod. 

"Please, Yami," Shu'ra begged more loudly, her desperate eyes darting to the rod in Cora's hand. "Please don't do this..." 

Cora flung the rod in the air. Yami drew his hands together, calling his power. 

"PLEASE!" Shu'ra screamed. "PLEASE, YAMI-AAAAAAAaaaaaaaaugh...!" 

Her scream faded, and the rod fell to the ground. The last magician in the Circle was crouched on the ground, his gaze moving furtively from Yami to Cora, and back again. 

"How will you live with yourself, Yami?" he suddenly snapped hoarsely. "You and your precious good magic. How will you live with yourself knowing you have banished four souls forever? How will you go through your life...?" 

"I wouldn't dream of banishing the four of you all by yourselves, Lem," Yami cut in sharply. "I am going to be right there with you." 

Lem's eyes widened in shock and horror as he noticed _ two_ items in Cora's hands. There was another item. A fifth one. 

"No," he breathed. 

Yami's hands were drawn together, gathering, focusing... 

Lem flung up a futile hand, as if trying to ward off the spell. "No!" he cried. But the single, hollow word was lost in Yami's shout. 

_ "Sepeh Spi!"_

The white light shot out as his hands outstretched towards the lone magician crouching in the Spell-Circle. Frozen, unmoving the power struck him and surrounded him, enveloped him and pulled him towards the golden Tauk hovering there like a magnet drawing iron... 

The Tauk fell to the floor with a loud clang. Yami and Cora were left alone. 

For a long moment, they looked around them at the items scattered on the floor, at the Spell Circle...and finally at each other. 

Yami pulled a small scroll from under his robe. 

"For Zaphnath," he explained softly to Cora. "It will tell him what we have done, and to lock the items away when he finds them ..." 

Cora nodded. Taking the scroll, she placed it on a small table pushed against the far wall. Carefully, so as not to disturb the magic, Yami and Cora gathered the items and placed them around the scroll on the table. Cora looked apprehensively at Yami. 

"This Zaphnath - he knows the Game, as do those of the light..." 

"Zaphnath trusts my judgement," Yami answered the unasked question. "He will not play the Game. And unlike the dark ones' pretences, those of the light are truly subject to Pharoah. If he forbids the Game, it will be forbidden. Those of the light will not transgress his command." 

Yami looked at the final item - a golden, pyramid-shaped puzzle. 

"Appropriate," Yami smiled ruefully. "I often puzzle over myself." 

"As do I," Cora returned, unsmiling. 

There was a heavy silence, broken by Cora's low voice. 

"Enclose me in the Circle, Yami. It will weaken my power, and it will be easier for you." 

He nodded, and a strange sort of numbness began to creep in on his awareness, making everything seem surreal. He faced Cora, seeing every part of her with acute clarity. Her silver hair shimmering in the dimming light of the dying candles, her jade-green eyes, darker in the advancing shadows, reflecting his haggard face back to him. The first feeling pushed its way through the numbness. He felt a cold, stone hand closing tightly around his throat. He opened his mouth to try to speak, but Cora shook her head. 

"Don't," she said. "It will only make it harder." 

Inadvertently, he took her hand. For a moment - a long moment - he held it, trying to etch the feeling of it into his brain. And for that moment, Cora's hand held his in return with childlike tightness. Then, turning quickly, she pulled herself away and stood in the centre of the Spell-Circle. 

_ "Sheni!"_ Yami cried in a voice that did not even sound like his own. It sounded like Zaphnath's: old and hoarse and tired. 

Cora stood unmoving as the invisible wall rose and surrounded her. She did not look at Yami, and Yami forcefully closed his eyes and drew on his power... 

It was so hard, pushing the storm of emotions inside down, shutting them off, trying to concentrate everything on the magic that was pulsing like a living thing before him. He opened his eyes, wishing he didn't have to, but the power had to be focused on Cora... 

Her head was bowed, her eyes closed, as she had been when he had first conjured her. Her silver hair was whipping around her head like a corona in the magic wind that would send her back to the Shadow Realm. His jaw hurting from clenching his teeth so very hard, he flung both hands and the power between them at Cora. 

_ "Hesek!"_

Everything slowed down, every second passing before him in agonizing detail. He saw his own power shooting from his hands and advancing towards Cora. He saw the shadow-play of light and darkness shift and move over her face as the light from his power drew closer. He saw her silver hair block her face from his view for an instant before the magic wind pulled it away once more. He noticed her lips were moving slightly, as though she was praying... 

Perhaps it was instinctive, he didn't know, when she opened her eyes in the last micron of time before the magic reached her. Or maybe she - like him - had only wanted one last look. Her eyes met his just as Yami's power struck her heart... 

She screamed. 

He tried to shut it out. Tried not to hear it. Tried not to feel it cutting his heart to ribbons. It seemed to go on for so long as he held the power there, forcing her back, and the sound of it was burned into his soul forever... 

...and she was gone... 

Still quivering with shock and pain over what he had just done, Yami placed himself in front of the pyramid-shaped, golden puzzle on the table. Turning his back to it, he gathered his energy again. 

_ "Seta Mesneh!"_

A glass-like wall shot up in front of him. He could see himself in it, and right now he loathed his reflection so much that his next step was almost easy. Juxtaposed between the puzzle and the mirror-wall so that he could see the puzzle behind him, he gathered his power for the last time. He saw it, reflected like a star between his hands. Pulling his hands apart slowly, he abruptly flung his power at both the puzzle, and himself in the mirror. 

_ "Sepeh Spi!"_

The power struck the mirror, shot back at him. It struck his heart. 

The first thing he felt was unbelievable pain, filling him, pulling, rending. He could see his body twisting impossibly, and he was being pulled down, down into the gold puzzle on the table. It was a cold, lifeless prison he was being forced into: dark, alone. He tried to scream, but he no longer had a mouth to make the sound... 

* * * 

...drowning... suffocating... 

_...can't breathe ...can't ...BREATHE..._

"Yugi! Yugi! Wake up!" 

Téa was shaking him. Her face was scared. Yugi sat bolt upright, pushing her away, stumbling backwards. He realized his face was wet with his own tears. 

_ "Don't touch me! Get away from me!"_

"Yugi, what's wrong...?" Téa looked downright terrified now. 

"Yug!" Joey's alarmed voice sounded to his left, "Yug! Your puzzle! It's ...glowing...!" 

Yugi paid no attention to his puzzle. He didn't care if it was glowing or not. His heart felt like it was going to burst. It was agony. _ Drowning... no air..._ He looked all around him, his eyes wild and staring, not even seeing his friends. Not caring... 

Clambering to his feet, he started running away before he even got to them, stumbling, running again. 

_ "Leave me alone!"_

Téa took a step to follow him, but Tristan held her back. Joey and Téa stared at him. 

"Let him go," Tristan said quietly. "Let him sort this out alone, man." 

Téa looked stricken. "How could you say that, Tristan?" she whispered. "We're his friends. We made a pact..." 

"Yeah, Trist," Joey jumped in, his defiance rising despite the cloud of sleepiness that still hung over his head. "What gives?" 

Tristan remained adamant. 

"I mean it," he emphasized. "Something's up with Yugi - ever since that Cora appeared. It's some kinda magic - I mean, it's obvious. He needs to deal with it. Alone." 

It stopped them. They stood, watching the bushes where Yugi had disappeared, Téa wringing her cold hands, her stomach writhing with terrible concern. Joey sighed. 

"Man," he said, shaking his shaggy head, "this has been one _ weird_ day." 

* * * 

Yugi ran and ran and ran until he could run no more. He fell hard to his knees, eyes blinded by tears, choking and wheezing through a throat that was aching and burning, but was nothing compared to the overpowering pain that felt like someone had run a meat grinder through his insides. 

_ What have I done? What did I do...? Oh, Cora, I'm sorry... I'm sorry..._

He could still hear her scream. This was torture - unbearable torment. What had he awakened inside him? What had he allowed to become a part of his soul...? 

He wept like a child, tears streaming out, crying until he was trembling and weak. How much had Cora suffered? His presence inside him? 

Behind his eyelids, he saw light. A soft, undulating glow... 

He knew it was Cora - knew she stood in front of him, but he couldn't look up. He couldn't bear to look at her now. His head was hot and his nose plugged and he could hardly breathe for the sobs that caught his throat. He couldn't see through the tears, anyway... 

_ Yami..._

He heard the voice in his mind, as he had heard it in his dream thousands of years ago - musical, ethereal. His own voice came out of him, choked with tears. 

"No," he answered, then paused as he looked up at her with red, puffy eyes. "And yes..." 

The silver-green eyes that had already known so much sorrow rested on him with immeasurable pity. 

"I am sorry," she whispered, "that you have been made to suffer with us." 

Yugi couldn't answer. His heart was like an iron weight, and he didn't move. Cora gingerly knelt before him so that she could look into his face. 

"Do not grieve, Yugi," she said gently. A small brightness exploded inside Yugi's stomach at the sound of her saying his name. "These things are long past." 

Yugi shut his eyes against this long-past pain that to him was as raw as a fresh wound. How could she have lived with this for so long? How could the spirit of his puzzle - the spirit of Yami? 

"I don't... know what t-to do..." he said finally. It was a hopeless statement, and he didn't really expect a reply from Cora. He just needed to say something, to release some of this terrible weight. It came as a surprise to him when, after a long pause, Cora spoke. 

"Your grandfather gave you the Millennium Puzzle," she said softly. "It is yours to do with what you will. I will tell you this, although you have guessed as much: it bears with it a great burden. The powers you deal with are dangerous and destructive - and they are all against you. Is this something you want, Yugi?" 

The question made him start, and he couldn't answer. A part of him wanted to answer right away, but another part of him seemed to have cemented his jaws shut. He felt tears building in his eyes again. He viciously wiped them away, hating them, hating his own indecision. The tempest of emotions began to roil in him again, and his voice came out choking and sobbing. 

"I... I understand... why... he... he did that to... to Kaiba... why... why he's always so... so serious. It's not just a... game... to him... It's not... a game..." 

He broke down again. His lip wouldn't stop trembling and he bit it with enough force to make it bleed, as more tears streamed down his face, blurring his eyes. Cora was silent, her face expressionless. He sniffed, trying to stop his nose from dripping and his eyes from spouting tears. He wouldn't have admitted it to anyone, not even Téa, but he was just a kid... a high-school _kid_... and he was afraid of this... 

"I would understand if you refused this because of the burden..." 

Yugi tensed, clenching his fists and teeth. _ No... it's not... the burden..._

"I just... don't know... if I..." "But," Cora's soft voice interrupted him, "if it is your ability you doubt, I would say do not doubt your abilities, Yugi Moto." 

Yugi stopped thinking, stopped breathing. He felt suspended on her words. 

"I sense a strong heart in you," she went on. Yugi dared not speak. "And if Yami can live in you" - she smiled - "it must have great power as well." 

Yugi met the milk jade eyes with stunned disbelief. Cora cupped his face in her hands. Leaning forward, she brought her lips to his forehead and kissed it. Yugi felt the warmth of it like he had just drunk a hot chocolate. It spread through him, and quieted the overpowering remorse that had taken him over. For a moment he looked into the timeless eyes and he was lost in them, as Yami had been. She was smiling. 

Then a pale strip of grey lightened the eastern sky. Cora seemed to become misty, and at first he thought it was his eyes tearing over again, but he realized it was Cora. She became less substantial, slowly becoming vaporous. 

"I want this," he said to her. "I will carry Yami's fight." 

Cora's misty form hovered weightlessly over him, her hair suspended around her like sunbeams. Her eyes rested on him more kindly than ever. 

"Yami could not have found a more worthy bearer of his spirit," she said with deep respect. 

Yugi watched her as she began to fade into the morning light. He stood up. 

"Wait!" he called. Cora looked at him expectantly, her form blurring and disintegrating, becoming part of the sky. 

"Will I... see you again?" 

Cora only smiled again. It was the last thing he saw before she dissolved into air. 

* * * 

"Yugi!" 

Yugi started at the sound of Téa's voice, and immediately wondered how long he had been sitting there staring into the dawn. The eastern sky had turned a delicate rose, dusting everything with pink. The golden rim of the sun peered over the horizon, adding a gilt edging to the rose dust on all the leaves, grass and trees. Yugi suddenly realized he was damp with dew... and he was cold. He shivered. 

He turned to Téa, and found Joey and Tristan standing around her. They looked tired and wan, but relieved to see him. 

"We were gettin' worried..." Tristan said uncertainly. "We thought we'd better come lookin' for you..." 

Téa advanced a few tentative steps and knelt down beside him a little less than an arm's length away. She was pale, and her vivid blue eyes were puffy and over-bright. Yugi felt at once both guilty and grateful for Téa's - and all of his friends' - deep concern for him. He smiled what he hoped was a reassuring smile. 

"Yugi, are you... okay?" Téa asked softly. 

Still smiling, Yugi nodded, reaching over and giving Téa's arm a squeeze. "I'm okay," he reassured her. 

Téa was not convinced. She looked hard into Yugi's wide, dark eyes. She saw that he seemed older, somehow more subdued, as though he had made some sort of inner peace... 

...but, as she tried to further read his soul through those eyes, there was a warning look behind them - Yugi, but not Yugi - that abruptly hid the darkness inside. It startled her, and she stopped her scrutiny with a blink. That part of Yugi remained a wall to her... 

Téa sat back, swallowing her disappointment. There was so much, after all, about her friend that she did not know, and probably never _ would_ know... 

Yugi suddenly jumped to his feet, and held out a hand to Téa to help her up. Hesitantly, Téa took it, smiling a curious half-smile up at him. He yanked her up with playful roughness, and she laughed, breaking the stress and worry that had held her in its grip for so long. _ Yugi_, she thought, _ you_ are _ a puzzle..._

"Yug." 

It was Joey's halting voice. 

"Yeah, Joey?" Yugi answered his friend. 

Joey paused, then: "Are you _ gonna_ be okay...?" 

Yugi's smile waned, and his brow creased as he thought seriously on Joey's surprisingly perceptive question. His eyes slid past his friends for a moment. _ Would_ he be okay...? 

Then he focused on them again. 

"Yes, Joey," he answered, his voice resolute, "I think I'm going to be just fine." 

Téa and Yugi walked over to Tristan and Joey. They all stood still for a moment, just letting the golden rays of sunrise creep through the trees to lay against their faces. It was a bright, warm promise of a beautiful day. 

"Hey!" Joey broke the silence, "how about breakfast? I'm starved!" 

* * *


	6. Update!

The story continues here... (copy and paste URL): 

http://www.fanfiction.net/read.php?storyid=1175004 


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